Researching Drama and Theatre Education

The theme of the sixth Nordic drama boreale conference “Drama in three movements –
a Ulyssean encounter” uses journey as a metaphor for life span. The metaphor
is used in order to illuminate and describe experiential learning in educational
drama and theatre in a life-long perspective. As guiding principles for the
preparation of the conference we have used the concept eco-pedagogical thinking
and artistic learning processes as possible key elements in the education of
tomorrow. In this anthology with 12 selected conference proceedings the diversity
of research within drama and theatre education within a Nordic framework is
exposed.
To develop research and knowledge about educational drama and theatre can
be considered a Ulyssean encounter: necessary to undertake, a huge task, a task
that can only be accomplished if we make joint efforts in order to articulate and
explore the knowledge potential in the art form about the human condition. Art
and science share a fundamental challenge: in both, you must concentrate on
imagining something that does not yet exist, because it is the art expression or
the result of the scientific effort that makes the not hitherto seen visible.
Educators in the field of drama and theatre education participate in a dialogue
about values in arts education through research and development aiming at
producing knowledge. This report intends to be part of that dialogue.
Report
Report Nr 29/2010
ISSN 1458-7777
ISBN 978-952-12-2405-8
Faculty of Education, Åbo Akademi University
A blind review report
Address: PB 311, 65101 VASA, Finland
https://www.abo.fi/student/pfpublikationer
A-L. Østern, M. Björkgren & B. Snickars-von Wright Drama in three movements A Ulyssean encounter
Drama in three movements
A Ulyssean encounter
Drama in three movements
A Ulyssean encounter
Anna-Lena Østern, Mårten Björkgren
& Birgitta Snickars-von Wright (Eds.)
Report
Nr 29/2010
Drama in three movements
A Ulyssean encounter
Anna-Lena Østern, Mårten Björkgren &
Birgitta Snickars-von Wright (Eds.)
Faculty of Education
Åbo Akademi University
Novia University of Applied Sciences
Åbo Akademi University
2010
A blind review report 29/2010
Faculty of Education at Åbo Akademi University.
Produced in co-operation with Novia, University of
Applied Sciences at Åbo Akademi University.
Layout: Hannah Kaihovirta-Rosvik
Front cover image: Hannah Kaihovirta-Rosvik
Print: Oy Fram Ab, Vaasa.
ISSN: 1458-7777
ISBN: 978-952-12-2405-8
ISBN 978-952-12-2835-3 (digital)
Abstract
The theme of the sixth Nordic drama boreale conference “Drama in
three movements – a Ulyssean encounter” uses journey as a
metaphor for life span. The metaphor is used in order to illuminate
and describe experiential learning in educational drama and theatre in
a life-long perspective. As guiding principles for the preparation of
the conference we have used the concept eco-pedagogical thinking
and artistic learning processes as possible key elements in the
education of tomorrow. In this anthology with 15 selected conference
proceedings the diversity of research within drama and theatre
education within a Nordic framework is exposed.
To develop research and knowledge about educational drama and
theatre can be considered a Ulyssean encounter: necessary to
undertake, a huge task, a task that can only be accomplished if we
make joint efforts in order to articulate and explore the knowledge
potential in the art form about the human condition. Art and science
share a fundamental challenge: in both, you must concentrate on
imagining something that does not yet exist, because it is the art
expression or the result of the scientific effort that makes the not
hitherto seen visible.
Educators in the field of drama and theatre education participate in a
dialogue about values in arts education through research and
development aiming at producing knowledge. This report intends to
be part of that dialogue.
3
Contents
Introduction: Drama boreale network meeting as a Ulyssean Encounter in
educational drama and theatre
7
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Distansering på nært hold - En undersøkelse av betydningen av
distansering i dramapedagogikk
Stig A. Eriksson
11
Fantasins bilder – om estetiska ingångar till lärande
Hannah Kaihovirta-Rosvik
21
Theater youth performances as educational experiences: Drama
educators creating interpretive zones
Liora Bresler
29
Three viewpoints on educational drama
Erkki Laakso
43
TIE - in winds and calm – an attempt at reframing ‘framing’
Kari Mjaaland-Heggstad
55
Applied theatre & drama - a well qualified concept?
Ida Krøgholt
67
Art-based research and drama as a way of knowing.
Building a house in no-man’s land.
Bjørn Rasmussen
75
Drama måste byggas i vardagen- dramalärares ledarskap
Eva Österlind
81
Researching drama and theatre education – are we telling
believers´ tales?
Hannu M. Heikkinen
87
10. Dramaturgy in teaching and learning
Tor-Helge Allern
95
11. The Theatre’s voice in community based arts
Wendy Lathrop Meyer
113
12. Discursive constraints in contemporary Nordic educational
drama and theatre
Anna-Lena Østern
125
13. About the authors
139
14. Figures & tables
143
5
6
Introduction
Drama boreale network meeting
A Ulyssean Encounter in educational
drama and theatre
For those who work within the field of arts and education the future
is in focus. The key question is: what society are we educating for?
What will the content of education be? What are the key
competencies needed in society of tomorrow? What will the good
life of tomorrow be like for children and young people growing up to
become adults in tomorrow’s society? We do not know for certain
what the answers to these questions are. From the point of view of
arts education, one important point is that cultural competence might
be the key competence of the future. Sociologists write about
knowing and being, and their opinion is that you have to combine
knowing something specific (having a competence) and being
present in the moment. In this scientific anthology we have collected
12 articles addressing this issue from the point of view of drama and
theatre education and more widely from arts education.
The theme of the conference “Drama in three movements – a
Ulyssean encounter” uses journey as a metaphor for life span. The
metaphor is used in order to illuminate and describe experiential
learning in educational drama and theatre in a life-long perspective.
The French philosopher Paul Ricoeur has given inspiration for a
description of a threefold mimesis: Mimesis 1 is the lives we live;
these are inscribed in time, but not yet told. Mimesis 2 is the
narrative, the story told. In drama and theatre the life stories of
different, unique people are told, shared, interpreted and transformed.
To tell the story makes it visible. Through the stories you tell you
encounter other people’s stories. In drama and theatre Mimesis 3 can
be when the stories told are responded to, in producing text upon the
text at hand. This can be a recirculation of fragments of different
stories, or building new stories based on the individual stories told. In
literature we meet stories, like the one about Ulysses in Greek
mythology. He was travelling for 24 years before he came back to his
wife and son. He made mistakes, he experienced a lot. We know the
stories about Circe and the sirens, about Scylla and Charybdis, about
7
his seven years with Calypso, about Zev’s revenge when Ulysses´
men had eaten the holy oxen at Helios. The main character
undertakes a dangerous journey. He faces different challenges, he
fails, he is tempted, he cheats , he is changed, he wins victories and
he returns home changed, transformed, more mature. He has
undertaken a character-forming journey.
To develop research and knowledge about educational drama and
theatre can be considered a Ulyssean encounter: necessary to
undertake, a huge task, a task that can only be accomplished if we
make joint efforts in order to articulate and explore the knowledge
potential in the art form about the human condition. Art and science
share a fundamental challenge: in both, you must concentrate on
imagining something that does not yet exist, because it is the art
expression or the result of the scientific effort that makes the not
hitherto seen visible.
As guiding principles for the preparation of the conference we have
used the concept eco-pedagogical thinking and artistic learning
processes as possible key elements in the education of tomorrow.
The publications from drama boreale 2009 consist of two separate
reports.1 This article collection “Drama in three movements – a
Ulyssean encounter” is built upon paper presentations at the
conference. Linked to the conference was a series of four research
symposia: (1) Dramatic Cultures 2004 2, (2) Arts Education and
Learning 2006, (3) Arts Education and Beyond 2009, and (4) Arts
Rich Education 2009. The second publication attached to drama
boreale in Vaasa is the scientific anthology “Arts Education and
Beyond” comprising texts from the different research symposia3 . As
the conference was built up through many contributing papers,
performances and workshops (about 70), we could not possibly
include all the texts as articles. Hence, a small number of the
research papers as well as development papers are included.
The first two articles of the report are two lectures presented by Stig
Eriksson and Hannah Kaihovirta-Rosvik respectively, being their
introductory speeches connected to the public defence of doctoral
1 A booklet
(Snickars-von Wright, Sandström & Østern work in progress) will be distributed to
relevant receivers.
2 Østern (Ed.) Dramatic Cultures. Report No 10. Faculty of Education at Åbo Akademi University.
3 Østern & Kaihovirta-Rosvik (Eds.) (2010). Arts Education and Beyond. Report No 28. Faculty of
Education at Åbo Akademi University.
8
theses at Åbo Akademi University, as part of the symposium Arts
Rich Education at the Drama boreale conference.
The conference had four invited key note speakers, all connected to
the main theme of the conference. The film director Klaus Härö
invited the audience to obtain an insight into his artistic working
process connected to his films “Elina as if I did not exist”, “The best
of mothers”, “The new human being” and “Letters to father Jacob”.
He was addressing important existential questions through telling
with images. He opened some paths into his personal life story and
his childhood experiences of films, which had made an impact on
him. Thus he demystified the work of an artist, and in a very touching
way showed how personal stories can give material to address more
collective, existential themes. He has not written an article based
upon his presentation, which in fact was very oral and visual.
Liora Bresler, Erkki Laakso, and Kari Mjaaland-Heggstad have built
key note articles on their research into the field of drama and theatre
education. The articles are quite different, comprising an
ethnographic approach to young audiences in performing arts centres
in the USA, a phenomenological study of trainee teachers´
experiences of process drama in Finland, respectively a study in
rhetoric of the notion of framing in theatre in education built upon a
British master company “Big Brum”.
The report contains texts from the invited senior researchers
illuminating some central issues in drama and theatre education
research right now – in a Nordic perspective. This perspective cannot
be characterized as having one common focus. Ida Krøgholt
discusses the notion of applied drama, thus touching upon how the
art form theatre can be transformed into learning processes through
the notion of aesthetic doubling. Bjørn Rasmussen and Hannu M
Heikkinen open up a discussion about how to perform artistic, or art
informed, or art based research in drama and theatre education. Eva
Österlind offers a Swedish pedagogical discourse discussing drama
educational leadership.
The two following articles can be described as research and
development papers. Tor Helge Allern applies dramaturgical thinking
in a project about the Norwegian poet and priest Petter Dass. He
discusses the learning potential connected to the use of the
dramaturgy metaphor in drama education. Wendy Lathrop Meyer,
describes a NORAD project with theatre for development carried out
in an African context by Norwegian drama educators.
9
In the concluding article Anna-Lena Østern makes a discourse
analysis of the Nordic field of drama and theatre education in terms
of the way it is visible in two statements directed to politicians and
departments in Finland and Norway in autumn 2009. Educators in the
field of drama and theatre education participate in a dialogue about
values in arts education through research and development aiming at
producing knowledge. This report intends to be part of that dialogue.
10
1. Distansering på nært hold en undersøkelse av betydningen av distansering i
dramapedagogikk
Stig A. Eriksson
I dette innledningsforedraget 1 vil jeg prøve å kombinere to ting: (a) å reflektere over
forskningsprosessen bak avhandlingen, synliggjøre de valgene som er foretatt og dermed
avhandlingens hovedperspektiver; (b) å gi tilhørere som er ukjent med fenomenet
distansering noen impulser om grunnleggende aspekter ved emnet uten at man må være
en innforstått fagperson.
Interessen for historiske linjer og tradisjonsavtrykk har satt sitt preg på avhandlingens
fokus og valg av perspektiver. Hovedfokuset er lagt på å forstå og belyse begrepet
distansering primært teoretisk, ikke empirisk gjennom feltstudier. Dette er gjort i form av
5 publiserte artikler som inngår i avhandlingen, og i monografi-form. Avhandlingen er
skrevet på engelsk.
I det følgende skal jeg prøve å formidle noe av begrepets kompleksitet, selv om det må
bli stikkordsmessig, og mot slutten også gi noen korte visuelle inntrykk. Men først, som
bakgrunnsreferanse for den videre fremstillingen, de tre forskningsspørsmålene jeg har
brukt som kompasskurser for studien:
a.
Hva er distansering? Hvordan forstås idéen om distansering i estetisk teori og i
dramapedagogikk?
b.
Hvilke formål og former for distansering kan identifiseres i litteraturen og i
praksiseksemplene som inngår i studien, og hva er distanseringsfunksjonene i disse
kontekstene?
c.
Er de historiske forekomstene av distansering i studien hovedsakelig likeartede eller
forskjellige? På hvilken måte er Brechts og Heathcotes bruk av distansering beslektet
med hverandre og med andre distanseringstradisjoner som presenteres i studien?
Jeg kan ikke gå nærmere inn på svarene på disse spørsmålene her; bare slå fast at de blir
besvart og håpe at det fins nysjerrige lesere som vil bruke tid til å se nærmere på dette i
avhandlingen. I her-og-nå-konteksten er det mer aktuelt å si litt om fremgangsmåter og
posisjoner. Perspektivene jeg ser på distansering fra er hentet fra litteraturteori, retorisk
teori, estetisk teori, teaterteori og dramapedagogisk teori. For å si det med Bertolt
Brecht: ”En mann med én teori er fortapt. Han må ha flere, fire, mange!” (Brecht i Kuhn
& Giles, Brecht on Art and Politics, 2003: omslaget)2 .
Jeg benytter meg i stor grad av nærlesninger, og da særlig nærlesninger av
forskningslitteratur knyttet til tre tradisjoner: Russisk formalisme i litteratur og teater
1
Disputas 05.08. 2009 ved Åbo Akademi universitets pedagogiske fakultet i Vasa. Lectio
Precursoria.
2 Alle oversettelser av sitater i denne introduksjonen er mine, hvor ikke annet er angitt.
11
forbundet med Viktor Sjklovskij i perioden ca. 1914-1930, Brechts episke teaterteori i
Tyskland som utvikles fra ca. 1928-1933 og britisk dramapedagogikk representert ved
Dorothy Heathcotes prosessdrama fra ca. 1968-1990-årene. Forskningsinteressen har
konsentrert seg om å identifisere, belyse, sammenligne og tolke anvendelser av
distansering innenfor disse tradisjonene. Et perspektiv er også Edward Bulloughs
estetiske teori fra 1912 om distanse som et prinsipp i all kunst og Daphna Ben-Chaims
oppfølging av dette i 1984 knyttet til teater3 .
Jeg har i forskningsprosessen i stor grad interessert meg for å tolke tolkninger.
Aspirasjonen har da i større grad vært å få en dypere og grundigere forståelse for
fenomenet og grepet distansering, enn en forventning om å oppdage noe radikalt nytt
innenfor f.eks. Brecht-forskningen eller Sjklovsky-forskningen per se - skjønt jeg antar
at nettopp begrepsanalysen på nært hold, på tvers av de tre tradisjonene jeg primært har
interessert meg for, burde gi en del lesere noen perspektiver de ikke er kjent med fra før.
Særlig håper jeg at mine utdypninger av distansering kan tilføre dramapedagogikken noe
nytt. For selv om feltet ikke mangler referanser til innflytelse fra f.eks. Brecht - jeg har
for øvrig presentert de fleste av disse i en av artiklene som inngår i avhandlingen4 fremstår mange slike referanser mer kursoriske enn preget av en anvendt poetikk eller
didaktikk utformet som dramapedagogisk praksis. Min intensjon har vært å vise med
større grundighet at og hvordan ulike sider ved distanseringsbegrepet kan identifiseres i
den prosessdramatradisjonen som Heathcote har bidratt til å utvikle, og at en større
bevissthet om betydningen av distansering kan berike denne genren, både kunstnerisk og
pedagogisk. Avhandlingen har således også et kartleggingsaspekt.
Jeg har gjennom prosjektet blitt opptatt av å utvide oppfatningen av distansering som
primært en Brechtsk fremmedgjøringsteknikk. Jeg er blitt interessert i å se andre nyanser
i begrepet, ikke minst dets pedagogiske underliggjøringspotensiale, som jeg skal vende
tilbake til om et øyeblikk. Først kan det være til hjelp å få markert som innholdsmessig
overblikk de tre vesentligste bruksområdene av distansering som avhandlingen drøfter,
nemlig distansering som: (a) estetisk prinsipp (principle) som bidrar til å konstituere
fiksjon, som (b) beskyttende distanse til et ømtålig emne som tas opp i spill eller det å
stille sitt spill til skue (protection), og som (c) et poetisk-didaktisk grep (device) som kan
skape noen kunstneriske og pedagogiske muligheter for påvirkning og læring. Jeg mener
avhandlingen får vist at distansering gjennom disse tre bruksområdene utgjør en
grunnkategori i prosessdrama, og ikke minst at distansering gir dramalæreren en poetiskdidaktisk dimensjon til rådighet som kombinerer kunst og pedagogikk, og som kopler
teater og dramapedagogikk. Slik har distansering en tverrfaglig sammenbyggende
funksjon.
Særlig to dramapedagogiske pionérnavn dominerer i avhandlingen: Heathcote og Brecht.
(Og jeg mener å være med mine fulle fem når jeg kaller Brecht for en dramapedagog, for
hans lærestykkearbeide kan betraktes som et dramapedagogisk pionerarbeid med
kvaliteter som dagens dramapedagogikk fortsatt kan hente inspirasjon fra). Helt siden jeg
første gang ble kjent med Brecht har han fascinert meg - som dikter, dramatiker og
pedagog. Etter at jeg også ble kjent med Heathcotes arbeider, vokste det fram en
fornemmelse for at det kunne finnes noen interessante likhetspunkter mellom de måtene
disse to prøver å skape mening på gjennom dramaarbeid – på tross av stor avstand
mellom dem i tid, kultur og ideologi. Aspektet distansering ble altså valgt som et mulig
bindeledd, og deretter - etter inspirasjon fra lesninger av romantikere som Coleridge,
3
Se litteraturlisten for utvalgte referanser til Sjklovskij (1893-1984), Brecht (1898-1956),
Heathcote (1926-), Bullough (1880-1934) og Ben-Chaim (1954-).
4 Eriksson 2007.
12
Shelley og Novalis, opplysningsfilosofer som Hegel og Diderot, litteraturvitere som
Sjklovskij, og ellers fra retorisk teori og tradisjon – ble jeg oppmerksom på den sentrale
valøren underliggjøring som på mange måter distanseringsbegrepet har vokst ut fra.
Denne valøren har gitt prosjektet en styrket epistemologisk orientering, altså et skjerpet
blikk for at distansering som underliggjøring kan fungere erkjennende og
kunnskapsutvidende – uten nødvendigvis å måtte operere uttalt politisk (selv om jeg
gjerne skulle håpe at studien kan bidra til ny interesse for samfunnskritisk
dramaundervisning).
De lærde strides om røttene til distanseringsbegrepet, og særlig påvirkningskildene til
Brechts begrep Verfremdung. Selv om jeg synes dette er interessant, og lar spørsmålet få
ganske god plass i avhandlingen, må jeg la det ligge her, bortsett fra et par utfyllende
begrepskommentarer:
På engelsk er Verfremdung ofte oversatt med alienation, men i den engelskspråklige
Brecht-resepsjonen 5 blir det pekt på at alienation har i seg bibetydningen "det å støte
fra seg" eller "det å føle seg fremmed", noe som slett ikke er dekkende for hva Brecht
ønsker å si med sitt begrep. Blant annet derfor har det vært relevant å se på andre
terminologier som brukes for V-effekten, f.eks. defamiliarization som antyder "det å
sette det kjente i et nytt lys", eller distanciation. Sistnevnte uttrykk vil en knapt finne
i et engelsk oppslagsverk, men det er bl.a. i hermeneutikken et begrep til å markere
”det å ha kritisk distanse til sine forforståelser”6. Her inkorporeres idéen om dobbel
bevissthet, som er et mye diskutert tema i dramapedagogikken.
Men Verfremdung er også oversatt med estrangement på engelsk. Denne nyansen får
tydeligere frem når ting og forhold ikke bør tas for gitt, altså: det at ingen gjengivelser
behøver å oppfattes som endelige og fastsatte. Brecht sier (og her har jeg valgt å
oversette Verfremdung med underliggjøring):
Det å underliggjøre en hendelse eller en karakter betyr helt enkelt å ta det
selvfølgelige, kjente, innlysende ved hendelsen eller karakteren og fremkalle
nysjerrighet og forbauselse over den (Brecht, ”Über experimentelles Theater”, 1963b:
101).
Underliggjøring dreier seg både om å motivere kritisk tenkning og å aktivisere kritisk
tenkning i praksis. Og dét er jo en dynamisk didaktisk tanke også med klasserommet
som arena.
Gjennom Brechts Verfremdungsbegrep kom jeg til de russiske formalistene. Priem
ostranenie betyr å bruke et kunstmiddel – et kunstgrep - til å gjøre noe underlig eller
merkverdig7 . Denne funksjonen kaller formalistene for des-automatisering. Desautomatisering uttrykker Sjklovskijs tese om at kunstens oppgave er å frisette
menneskers persepsjon fra bevisstløs reproduksjon av ting og hendelser. Sjklovskij sier:
”Kunstens mål er å gi oss følelse for tingen, en følelse som er et syn og ikke bare en
gjenkjennelse” (Sjklovskij, 1970:213). Han sier at hverdagslivets tenkemåter virker
automatiserende og sløvende på bevisstheten; at praktiske handlinger fra dagliglivet
svekker persepsjonen sånn at vi ikke lenger ser, bare gjenkjenner: ”Automatiseringen
fortærer tingene, klær, møbler, kvinnen, og angsten for krigen” (Sjklovskij, 1970:213).
Dette er ganske tilsvarende Brechts ide om underliggjøring - når han sier:
5
bl.a. hos John Willett (1984:221), hos Elisabeth Wright (1989:19), hos Peter Brooker (1994:193)
og hos Fredric Jameson (1998:39 og fotnote 13)
6 Se f.eks. http://provocationsandpantings.blogspot.com/2006/09/distanciation-what-is-it.html lest 6.5., 2008.
7 ”Kunstmittel der Verseltsamung”, Fradkin (1977:406).
13
Det ble lett etter en fremstillingsmåte som fikk det velkjente til å bli påfallende, det
vante forbausende. Det allment forekommende skulle kunne virke eiendommelig, og
mye som virket naturlig skulle kunne gjenkjennes som kunstig (Brecht, ”Episches
Theater, Entfremdung”, 1963a:196).
Og det er i tråd med Heathcotes forutsetninger for læring gjennom drama – når hun vil:
Distansere situasjonen om jeg kan fra et fordomsfylt syn, for slik å aktivere et nytt syn
uten byrden av en gammel merkelapp som forhindrer inn-syn (Heathcote, ”Of These
Seeds Becoming”, 1978:21).
Et poeng jeg også vil nevne her, og som jeg behandler mer inngående i avhandlingen, er
at grepet underliggjøring går mye lenger tilbake enn til Sjklovskij og Brecht, og at begge
var kjent med denne idéen bl.a. gjennom romantikkens litteratur. Både Novalis, Shelley,
og Coleridge har ytret seg om underliggjøring: ”Kunsten å underliggjøre på en tiltalende
måte, det å gjøre en gjenstand fremmed og likevel kjent og tiltrekkende, det er den
romantiske poetikk” (Novalis 1837, del 2:225).
Dessuten har idéen en lang tradisjon i retorikken gjennom kategorien figur eller trope,
som representerer ulike typer omforming, omskrivende uttrykk, som i sitt vesen er
underliggjørende8 . Hos Brecht fins det svært mange eksempler fra figurfeltet, som jeg
mener også tilhører distanseringsfeltet, noe jeg dessverre av omfangshensyn ikke fikk
vist i avhandingens artikkel9 om Brechts lærestykke Forholdsregelen. Men her er et
eksempel på figuren simile, som er en form for metafor:
ulykken vokser ikke som spedalskhet på brystet; fattigdommen faller ikke som
takstein fra takene; men ulykke og fattigdom er menneskeverk; mangelen blir tilberedt
for dem, men deres klager fortæres som god mat (Forholdsregelen, 1974:71).
Jeg mener å kunne påvise gjennom avhandlingen at underliggjøring gjennemsyrer svært
mye av hva Heathcote foretager sig, selv om hun bare på ett sted i sine publikasjoner
nevner underliggjøring spesifikt - nemlig i følgende sitat:
Det jeg forsøker å gjøre […] er å ryste leseren ut av et konvensjonelt syn på
læreplanen ved å bruke ostranenie-prinsippet, som av Viktor Sjklovskij er definert
som ’det å gjøre underlig’. Det er lett for at vi slutter å ’se’ den verden vi befinner oss
i og vi blir anestisert overfor dens særegne trekk. Kunstfagene gir oss anledning til å
’reversere den prosessen og kreativt deformere det vanlige, det normale, og dermed
innprente en ny, barnlig, ikke-sløvet visjon i oss’ (Heathcote, “Material for
significance”, 1984:127).
I sitatet fornemmes også den underliggjørende språkbruken som Heathcote ofte benytter.
Men la meg herfra gå til et eksempel på underliggjøring fra bildekunst og et glimt fra
dramapedagogisk praksis. Maleriet som er brukt på avhandlingens forside er i seg selv
8
Retorisk figur er en stilistisk kategori som relaterer seg til uttrykkselement i språket som
gjennomgår eller representerer ulike typer omforming. I den klassiske retorikken skilte man
mellom trope (=omforming av enkeltord) og figur (=omforming av flere ord i sammenheng). I den
klassiske retorikkens tredje del – elocutio (selve veltalenheten) – behandles en lang rekke begreper
og distinksjoner for det figurale feltet. Til grunn ligger forestillingen om at det nakne språket
behøver ornamenteringer av ulike slag for å kunne fungere overbevisende eller behagende. De
midlene, eller ”gevantene”, som språket kan kles i, er figurene (Gundersen 1999:80).
9 Eriksson 2006. “Using fabula, syuzhet, forma as Tools of Analysis in Drama Pedagogy — with
Brecht’s The Measures Taken as an example”.
14
tenkt som en underliggjøringseffekt – et distanseringsgrep – hvor en må på nært hold for
å finne det som etter bildets tittel er hovedsaken: Ikaros fall.
Figur 1. P. Brueghel d.e.; Landscape with the Fall of Ikaros, ca. 1558. (Originalen henger i The
Royal Museums of Fine Art, Brüssel, Belgia).
Det jeg finner underliggjørende i dette bildet er at det går en stund før en oppdager en
kopling til Ikaros-myten; altså legenden om Ikaros som laget seg vinger av voks, men
som styrtet i havet da voksen smeltet fordi han kom for nær solen. En ser jo først og
fremst et landskapsbilde med en bonde som pløyer jorden, en gjeter og sauene hans,
samt en mann som fisker fra bredden med stang. Og alle tre virker helt uanfektet av
plasket som Ikaros forårsaker helt nederst i det høyre hjørnet… Men når en først har sett
det, blir en nysjerrig og begynner å tenke: Kan det nå skje en forandring i forholdet
mellom dem, eller vil deres verden gå videre uten interesse for det kreative vågestykket
som nettopp er utført like ved? 10
Figur 2. Detalj fra Ikaros flukt.
Denne lille detaljen, som en bare finner gjennom å komme på nært hold, er en
10
Se ellers Ralf Långbacka 1981:127ff.
15
distanseringseffekt; den har humor og ironi; den skaper interesse og engasjement. Det
skal for øvrig nevnes at Brecht har nevnt realismen i Pieter Brueghel d.e.s bilder som en
slags modell for den episke realismen, og det fremgår av Brechts Arbeitsjournal 11 at
Breughel har hatt stor betydning for ham.
Så presenteres et kort videoklipp fra et dramaforløp – Teaching Political Awareness
through Drama - som Heathcote foretar med en gruppe 12-åringer på Blakelaw School i
Newcastle i 1980. Det gir oss et inntrykk av hvordan Heathcote anvender
distanseringsgrep som både overrasker elevene og samtidig engasjerer dem. Dette kuttet
(som ikke er analysert i avhandlingen) hentes frem her for å vise grepet lærer-i-rolle. Her
representerer Heathcote direktøren for det japanske Chisso-konsernet, som har sluppet ut
aluminiumsavfall i havet slik at fisken og menneskene som spiser den blir deformert.
Hun spiller ingen karakter men anvender distansert, episk spillestil, med bl.a.
henvendelse til publikum og bruk av symbolrekvisitter, som f.eks. representerer den
forurensede fisken og direktør-figurens makt.
Figur 3. Hethcote som lærer-i-rolle.
Hele situasjonen er improvisert og det er interessant å se at jentene i scenen, som her
representerer fiskerkoner fra Minamata Bay som Chisso forurenset på 1950-tallet, og
som ifølge Heathcote i et intervju kommer fra et tøft arbeiderklassemiljø i Newcastle
hvor kvinnenes stemmer ikke ofte blir lyttet til, blir sterkere når de får motstand fra
direktøren, og de lar seg ikke avvise. En av avhandlingens artikler12 analyserer ”på nært
hold” poetisk-didaktiske grep som Heathcote foretar i vidoens innledende
parabelsekvens.
Avslutningsvis skal det fremheves at undersøkelsen av distanseringsbegrepet går i
beskjeden grad inn på dets forekomst eller betydning i det postmoderne. Nettopp i en tid
og i et akademisk klima som har vært farget av postmodernismens tradisjonskritiske
idealer, har jeg ønsket å synliggjøre en historisk linje som fortsatt har livskraft og
potensiale. Jeg opplever de tradisjonene som avhandlingen undersøker som aktuelle
11 Brecht nevner bl.a. i et notat fra New York en Brueghel-utgave som han ”dro med seg rundt i
hele verden” (Brecht 1977:310). Det går også frem av arbeidsjournalen at Brecht har brukt konkret
idéer fra Breughel-bilder i stykkene sine, bl.a. kostymene til Galileo og Grusche-figuren fra ”Gale
Grete” (Långbacka 1981:127).
12 Eriksson 2008. ”Distansering på nært hold. Underliggjøringsgrep i Dorothy Heathcotes
prosessdrama Teaching Political Awareness through Drama”.
16
inspirasjonskilder og forløpere som godt kan tilpasses postdramatiske arbeidsmåter. Det
kan være på sin plass å minne om at teaterforskeren Elisabeth Wright nettopp ser
postmoderne trekk når hun f.eks. karakteriserer Brechts lærestykker som:
Unnfanget som et teater kun for deltakere […] ved at det forutsetter kunst som en
sosial praksis, et kooperativt arbeid som gradvis vil bryte ned skillet mellom
produsenter og konsumenter, og utfordre, for ikke å si forandre, tradisjonelle
oppfatninger av teater (Wright, Postmodern Brecht, 1989:125).
Dette er trekk som også skaper assosiasjoner til prosessdrama, genren som
dramaforskeren Brad Haseman i en artikkel fra 1991 karakteriserer som ”en av de mest
spennende nye dramaformer etter 1945 – en som ser drama som både kunst og
pedagogikk”13.
Selv om det ikke har vært løftet frem som et poeng i avhandlingen, så kan godt
prosessdramaet, om en vil, betraktes som en slags postdramatisk genre: Det er ikke
underlagt en forfatters autoritet. Tekstgrunnlaget skapes dels improvisatorisk, dels
gjennom dekonstruksjon av tekstforelegg, og gjennom ulike innganger eller såkalte
ramme-settinger (frames). Dette gir meningsflertydighet snarere enn autoritativ tolkning.
Deltakerne selv produserer dramets innhold; de er ikke passive konsumenter. Innholdet
karakteriseres mer som en samling hendelser (events) enn en sammenhengende lineær
fortelling.
Gjennom mitt utgangspunkt i det historiske grunnlaget for distansering, mener jeg
avhandlingen bidrar til grundigere forståelse av kompleksiteten i begrepet, men også av
begrepets herkomst, noe jeg selv synes har vært spennende. Avhandlingen bringer
intervjumateriale som ikke er publisert før, og jeg oversetter sitater fra Brecht-tekster jeg
tror ikke har vært utgitt på engelsk tidligere. Avhandlingens blikk på distansering i
dramapedagogisk praksis har ført til utvikling av et par modeller (Eriksson 2009:45 og
appendiks 2) som egner seg både til kartlegging og til planlegging av distansering som
grunnelement i en poetisk-didaktisk dramapraksis. Disse har ikke vært prøvd ut i noen
feltstudie ennå, men det er noe jeg gjerne skulle ha lyst å gjøre senere. Arbeidet med
avhandlingen har overbevist meg om at det kan utgjøre en kvalitativ forskjell når læreren
inkorporerer distansering i undervisning som har som mål å kombinere pedagogikk og
kunst, noe jeg fortsatt i dag betrakter som et gangbart og potent mål for
dramapedagogikken. Noe annet ville være å underskatte den dramatiske kunstens
pedagogiske tradisjoner, teatrets potensiale som samfunnsreflekterende kraft og kilde til
ettertanke og refleksjon.
13
Haseman, Brad 1991. ”Improvisation, process Drama and Dramatic Art”.
17
Referencer
Ben-Chaim, D. (1984). Distance in the Theatre. The Aesthetics of Audience Response,
Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press (Theatre and Dramatic Studies, No. 17).
Brecht, B. (1936/1937.1963a ). ”Episches Theater, Entfremdung”. I: Schriften zum
Theater, b. 3, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
Brecht, B. (1939/1940. 1963b). ”Über experimentelles Theater”. I: Schriften zum
Theater, b. 3, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
Brecht, B. (1974). Lærestykker. (Oversettelser ved E. Haavardsholm, G. Johannesen, P.
Kjelling). Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag.
Brecht, B. (1977). Arbeitsjournal 1938-1955, Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag.
Brooker, P. (1994). “Key words in Brecht’s theory and practice”. I: P. Thomson & G.
Sacks (Red.). The Cambridge Companion to Brecht, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Bullough, E. (1912/1957). “’Psychical Distance’ as a Factor in Art and an Aesthetic
principle”. I: E.M. Wilkinson (Red.). Edward Bullough. Aesthetics. Lectures and Essays.
London: Bowes & Bowes.
Eriksson, S. A. (2006). “Using fabula, syuzhet, forma as Tools of Analysis in Drama
Pedagogy — with Brecht’s The Measures Taken as an example”. I: M. Balfour & J.
Somers (Red.). Drama as Social Intervention, Concord, ON: Captus University
Publications.
Eriksson, S. A. (2007). “Looking at elements of distancing in the work of Dorothy
Heathcote – with a sidelong glance to Brecht”. I: M. Streisand et.al. (hg.). „Talkin ´bout
my Generation“. Generationen im Gespräch. Archäologie der Theaterpädagogik II,
Berlin: Schibri-Verlag.
Eriksson, S. A. (2008): ”Distansering på nært hold. Underliggjøringsgrep i Dorothy
Heathcotes prosessdrama Teaching Political Awareness through Drama”. I: A. Nyrnes &
N. Lehmann (Red.). Ut frå det konkrete. Bidrag til ein retorisk kunstfagdidaktikk, Oslo:
Universitetsforlaget.
Eriksson, S. A. (2009). Distancing at Close Range. Investigating the Significance of
Distancing in Drama Education, Vasa: Åbo Akademi. (Diss.)
Fradkin, I. (1977). Bertolt Brecht. Weg und Methode, Leipzig: Verlag Philipp Reclam.
Gundersen, K. (1999). Allegorier: innganger til litteraturens rom,
Oslo: Aschehoug.
Haseman, B. (1991). Improvisation, Process Drama and Dramatic Art. I: The Drama
Magazine. The Journal of National Drama, July.
Heathcote, D. (1978). Of These Seeds Becoming. I: R.B. Shuman (Red.). Educational
Drama for Today’s Schools, Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press.
18
Heathcote, D. (1980/1984). Material for significance. I: C. O’Neill &
L. Johnson (Red.). Dorothy Heathcote: Collected writings on education and drama,
London: Hutchinson & Co.
Jameson, F. (1998). Brecht and Method, London: Verso.
Kuhn, T. & Giles, S. (2003). Brecht on Art & Politics, London: Methuen.
Långbacka, R. (1981). Bland annat om Brecht. Texter om teater, Ekenäs: Söderström &
Co.
Louisville, T. (2006). Distanciation – What Is It? http://
provocationsandpantings.blogspot.com/2006/09/distanciation-what-is-it.html (lest
06.05.2008).
Novalis (1837). Novalis Schriften, Zweiter Theil. [www document]. Utgitt av Tieck,
Ludwig og Schlegel, Friedrich, Berlin: Verlag von G. Reimer.
Sjklovskij, V. B. (1916/17.1970). Kunsten som grep. Trans. S. Fasting. I: E. Eide, Eiliv,
A. Kittang & A. Asbjørn (Red.). Teorier om diktekunsten. Fra Platon til Goldmann,
Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Willett, J. (1984). Brecht in Context. Comparative Approaches, London: Methuen.
Wright, E. (1989). Postmodern Brecht. A Re-Presentation. London: Routledge.
19
Fantasins bilder - om estetiska ingångar till lärande 1
2.
Hannah Kaihovirta-Rosvik
Vid senaste Drama boreale konferens i Trondheim deltog jag i en masterclass med ett
paper där jag resonerade kring metaforen som tematisk utgångspunkt för lärande.
Opponenten vid det tillfället framhöll att forskningstemat hade många intressanta
ingångar och gav mig rådet att akta mig för att mitt avhandlingsarbete skulle bli ett
livsprojekt. Opponenten visste vad han talade om, för det var ju klart att det var just ett
livsprojekt som min forskning kom att bli under de fyra år som jag haft möjlighet att
vara doktorand vid forskarskolan Lärande och bildning i det senmoderna samhället här
vid Pedagogiska fakulteten i Vasa.
Det bärande temat för det här årets Drama boreale konferens är resan som metafor för
lärande. Lärande förstås då som en resa där man lämnar det trygga för att lära sig något
nytt, en resa under vilken man mognar genom att inhämta kunskap och reflektera
erfarenheter. Jag har i min lectio valt att lyssna in resan som metafor för lärande och
kommer i det följande följande att beskriva min forskning, det så kallade livsprojektet,
som en bildningsresa.
I avhandlingen har jag genom en systematisk tolkningsprocess av konstbaserat lärande
resonerat mig fram till en levande metafor, en rhizomatisk figur om ett estetiskt
förhållningssätt till lärande. Ansatsen ligger i att jag överfört konstnärens sätt att
beskriva och gestalta världen till en vetenskapsfilosofisk tolkning om konst, pedagogik,
multimodalitet, fantasi, lärande och förändring. Överföringen gestaltas i studien genom
tre abstraktioner som är invävda i varandra:
•
konstnärens
visuella
uppfattning
om linje är överförd till en erfarenhetsbaserad
berättelse som gestaltar den akademiskt informerade konstnären
•
konstnärens visuella uppfattning om plan är överförd till en kartläggning och
beskrivning av forskningsobjektet och gestaltar den samarbetande konstnären i
skolan
•
konstnärens spatiala uppfattning om rum är överförd till hermeneutiska
tolkningsmönster. Tolknngsmönstret gestaltar den konstinformerade forskaren.
Mötet mellan konst och pedagogik
Bildningsresan som jag i det följande beskriver började 1999 då en klasslärare och jag
tillsammans med elever vid en finlandsvensk grundskola här i Vasa startade upp en
konstbaserad lärandepraktik. Lärandepraktiken utformades som dialogundervisning där
konsten fungerade som en katalysator för ämnesöverskridande lärande. Samarbetsprojektet
genomfördes så att bildkonstnären och klassläraren tillsammans planerade
undervisningen utgående från dåvarande läroplan. Konstnären var närvarande i själva
1
Artikeln bygger på disputation vid Åbo Akademi universitets pedagogiska fakultet i Vasa 5.8
2009. Lectio precursoria.
21
skolpraktiken ungefär 4 timmar i veckan.
Samarbetsprojektet kunde ha avslutats enligt vedertagen modell: planera, genomför,
avsluta och kunde ha blivit en projektrapport om ”community art” bland många andra.
Men samarbetet hade satt i rörelse en energi som var intuitivt närvarande och som bar
fram kunskap och vetande som det var svårt att definiera. Det intuitiva som fanns i
lärandepraktiken låg nära perceptionen, i det som läraren och konstnären observerade i
lärandepraktiken. Vetenskapsmannen och filosofen Michail Polanyi (1967) kallar det
intuitiva för tacit knowledge, en slags tyst kunskap där människor vet mer om hur de
tänker och handlar än de kan förklara.
Om projekt
Jag vill här inflika några ord om begreppet projekt. Den ursprungliga betydelsen för
ordet projekt härstammar från det latinska ordet projicere – att göra ett utkast för en idé.
Det vill säga, när man till exempel talar om ett livsprojekt - att göra ett utkast för en idé
om livet. I det här sammanhanget tolkar jag begreppet utgående från följande
tankefigur:
Livsprojekt > Bildningsresa > Avhandling >>> Ett utkast för en idé om livet som
lärande.
Under modern tid och framförallt i samband med industrialismen har betydelsen av
ordet projekt förskjutits och idag förstår vi begreppet projekt som en definition av en
temporär satsning som genomförs för att framställa något som etablerade metoder inte
är utformade för att klara av. Projekt kan styras på olika sätt och olika resultat kan
eftersträvas. Målsättningen kan antingen vara slutliga resultat som till exempel
produkter, tjänster eller modeller. Resultatet av ett projekt kan även vara själva
förfaringssättet som skapats.
Det samarbetsprojekt som kom att bli startpunkten för den här avhandlingen innehåller
flera av tankefigurens aspekter. Men det är framförallt den ursprungliga etymologiska
betydelsen av ordet projekt- att göra ett utkast för en idé som definierar avhandlingens
disposition. I avhandlingen har jag valt ut två specifika estetiska teman; dikten Bonden
Paavo (Runeberg 1830) och rågbrödet som kulturell projektion och symbol, för att
kartlägga och tolka den tioåriga konstbaserade lärandepraktiken.
Att sätta ord på erfarenheter av förändring
Den konstbaserade lärandepraktiken byggde på att elever genom olika konstformer och
konstkonventioner bearbetade sitt förhållande till den omgivande kulturen. Konsten
förändrade temporärt klassrummet till ett tolkningsrum där konstkonventionerna var ett
första uttryck för tolkning av det kulturella temat. De inledande tolkningarna förlängdes
i lärandepraktiken till ”tolknigsspiraler” som skapade ny mening kring temat och kring
lärande. Det här arbetet dokumenterades systematiskt. Bildkonstnären och läraren
reflekterade praktiken, men stod ofta inför det faktum att deras tidigare erfarenheter inte
räckte till för att definiera vilka förändringar som de förlängda tolkningsmönstren hade
satt igång.
I samband med att samarbetsprojektet hade väckt frågor om estetiska lärprocesser
fångade två forskare inom modersmålets didaktik här vid Pedagogiska fakulteten i Vasa
upp lärarens och mitt samarbete. De öppnade bokstavligen upp en värld av ord där den
tysta kunskapen fick begrepp och blev synlig.
22
Mötet mellan skolpraktik och pedagogisk forskning
Så kom det sig att ett nytt möte under bildningsresan skapade möjligheter för att gestalta
det upplevda och erfarna men svårdefinierbara, till något gripbart. Samtidigt som det
öppnade helt nya infallsvinklar på konst i skolan.
Genom att konstpraktiken integrerades i ett utvecklingsprojekt och produktionen av
läromedel i modersmål och litteratur, ett läromedel om kulturfostran, kulturell
läsfärdighet, estetiska läroprocesser och multimodalitet blev det möjligt att omtolka och
gestalta erfarenheterna från lärandepraktiken till artikulerad kunskap. Både teorier och
erfarenheter från konsten och pedagogiken genererade modeller som delvis gav svar på
de frågor som steg fram ur tolkningen av den konstbaserade lärandepraktiken.
Men någonstans i det som tog form fanns något utöver det som blev artikulerat. Där
fanns något annat som jag föreställde mig var nyckeln till det som läraren och
konstnären intuitivt anade. Jag föreställde mig, hade en hypotes om att det andra låg i
mötet mellan de två tankefigurer som jag som deltagande konstnär i skolan
återkommande bollade med:
•
ett pedagogiskt förhållningssätt till konst
•
ett konstnärligt förhållningssätt till pedagogik.
Eftersom samarbetet genomfördes inom grundutbildning fanns den mest konkreta
formuleringen av ett pedagogiskt förhållningssätt till konst i läroplanen. I den nationella
läroplanen (FNBE, 2004) formuleras ett pedagogiskt förhållningssätt till konst på
följande sätt:
•
undervisning i konst skall skapa förståelse för den visuella världen
•
undervisning i konst skall stöda elevens visuella tänkande och utveckling av
estetiskt och etiskt medvetande
•
syftet med undervisningen är att eleven skall utveckla en personlig relation
till konst
•
målet är att utveckla elevens fantasi och främja förmåga till kreativ
problemlösning och undersökande studier.
Generellt kan man säga att ett pedagogiskt förhållningssätt till konst förespråkar två
riktlinjer: att undervisning i konst är att stöda lärande där elever lär sig om konst och att
undervisning i konst är att stöda annat lärande. Samarbetets struktur visar att läroplanens
riktlinjer användes för att förklara lärandepraktikens pedagogiska syften och mål och för
att pedagogiskt motivera varför en klasslärare och en bildkonstnär påbörjar ett dylikt
samarbete i skolan. Så som jag tidigare nämnde hade även en annan tankefigur tagit
form under samarbetet; Ett konstnärligt förhållningssätt till pedagogik. Det här
förhållningssättet fanns inte lika tydligt definierat i några styrdokument. Och eftersom
det inte fanns lika tydligt definierat, gled förståelsen för det antagna andra som kunde
finnas i mötet mellan de två tankefigurerna ur händerna. Det här var startpunkten för en
ny etapp på bildningsresan.
Konstnärens möte med pedagogik som vetenskap
En avgörande faktor för hur mitt samarbete med pedagoger förändrades till en konstnärs
forskningsprocess i pedagogik är min tolkning av professor Inkeri Savas kriterier för
23
forskning inom konst och pedagogik. Sava (2003) framhåller att forskning inom konst
och pedagogik är att översätta kunskap om konst till pedagogisk kunskap om eleven och
om lärande. Sava definierar översättningen med hjälp av begreppet transfer (överföring)
och förtydligar att överföringen innebär att särdrag från konsternas språk förstås som
pedagogisk kunskap i undervisningssituationen.
Generellt kan den här överföringen anses som det självklara som görs i de flesta
konstpraktiker som förverkligas i finländska skolor. Man har till exempel bildkonst,
litteratur, musik, drama och slöjdundervisning i skolorna där elever får skapa i olika
material, får lära sig grundläggande tekniker och får bekanta sig med traditioner, konstoch kulturarv. Det här är förstås ett sätt att överföra särdrag från konst till pedagogisk
kunskap. Tyngdpunkten ligger då på ett pedagogiskt, eller mer specifikt, ett didaktiskt
förhållningssätt till konst och kan generera pedagogisk reduktion av konstens kvaliteter.
Savas beskrivning av vad forskning inom konst och pedagogik är gav verktyg för att
konkretisera den andra tankefiguren: ett konstnärligt förhållningssätt till pedagogik.
De som varit med om konstbaserade upplevelser i skolan vet att både konst och lärande
som riktigt berör på djupet handlar om något mer än kunskap om material och tekniker.
Det finns något i både konst- och lärandeupplevelser som gör att vi ser världen och oss
själva på ett nytt sätt. Mitt antagande är att ett konstnärligt förhållningssätt till
pedagogik är att fästa uppmärksamhet vid både konst och lärande som berör och som
gör att vi ser kombinationen av dem på ett nytt sätt.
Här vill jag lyfta fram en viktig aspekt av hur jag som konstnär motiverade min närvaro
i skolan från en konstnärs kulturarena och hur jag som konstnär motiverade att
samarbetet mellan klassläraren, eleverna och mig var konst.
Den relationella estetiken
År 1998 gav den franska konstvetaren Nicholas Bourriaud ut boken Relational
Aesthetics, relationell estetik, och lyfte fram en konstteori som fångar upp konst där
konstnärer tar dialogen som utgångspunkt, inte endast som mål för sitt konstnärliga
arbete. Bourriaud menar att när en konstnär väljer att gå in i olika kultur- och
samhällskontexter skapar konstnären tillsammans med andra människor tolkningsrum
där dialogen i sin specifika inramning blir en konstnärlig upplevelse. Med hjälp av
teorin om den relationella estetiken kan man förklara att jag som konstnär ansåg att jag
steg in på skolans arena med intentionen att skapa dialoger som var konst. Men skolan och i förlängningen pedagogiken, har en egen agenda. På den agendan är dialogen viktig
för att nå ett mål - lärande.
Studien visar på att läraren och den deltagande konstnären tillsammans med eleverna
skapade olika former av kulturella tolkningsmönster.
De tolkningsmönster som
skapades visade sig som både-och där särdrag från konst överfördes till pedagogisk
kunskap, samtidigt som samarbetets pedagogiska särdrag visade sig som något som jag
tolkar som ett konstnärligt förhållningssätt till lärande.
Samtidigt visar studien att för att man verkligen som konstnär skall kunna förstå konsten
som man arbetar med, behöver man ta distans, om än bara temporärt, för att se det från
ett nytt perspektiv. Det var så konstnären antog en forskares position i en pedagogisk
forskningskontext.
Avhandlingen som jag idag lägger fram handlar mycket om att hantera de överförande
handlingarna. Samtidigt handlar avhandlingen om att det nya sammanhanget skapade
förutsättningar för att göra en studie i vad både- och är i ett sammanhang där konst och
24
pedagogik möts, vilka kvaliteter som ligger i det och hur det genererar mening.
Rågbrödet
Då jag påbörjade min forskningsprocess hade jag en mycket grundläggande föreställning
om vad kvalitativ forskning i pedagogik är: Det är att undersöka det andra. I
avhandlingen är den här grundläggande föreställningen explicit närvarande och den har
utvidgats till att omfatta olika aspekter och dimensioner av vad kvalitativ forskning är.
Den moderna människovetenskapen uttrycker tydligt att vi i vår vardag förstår det andra
genom en förförståelse där vi tar utgångspunkt i det ena. Och det ena förväxlas ofta då
med det egna. Det som var utmanade i min forskningsprocess var att det inte räckte att
förklara samarbetet som jag undersökte i en senmodern kontext som antingen det ena
eller det andra. Det som samarbetet byggde på var det både-och som skapades mellan
människor. Både – och stiger fram på flera nivåer i studien. Filosofen Emmanuel
Lévinas (Jfr Kemp, 1992) menar att förståelsen av både-och är en etisk förståelse där vi
lyssnar in den andra eller det andra, tolkar mötet och responderar tolkningen utgående
från våra erfarenheter. Filosofen Hans–Georg Gadamer (1997) å sin sida menar att det är
både och som är en brytningspunkt, en nyckelhändelse för hur människor förändrar och
utvidgar sin förståelse av verkligheten. Han beskriver att detta både och kommer till
genom att människans tolkningsmönster förändras. Och han menar att det framförallt är i
dialogen mellan människor som förändringen sker. Genom dialogen blir olika tolkningar
av världen synliga som både och. I dialogen lär sig människor genom att de överskrider
antingen – eller. I det både-och som steg fram i det konstbaserade samarbetsprojektet var
det inte endast konstnären som försökte förstå det andra genom konsten i ett
utbildningssammanhang, det var likväl en lärares och elevers möte med konst som
handlade om att förstå konst som lärande.
I avhandlingen representerar rågbrödet en tioårig bearbetning av både och. Det här
synliggörs i avhandlingen genom ett bildmontage. Tolkningen av bildmontaget genererar
en förståelse för konstbaserat lärande som förändring. I studien stiger tre faser av
förändringen fram. I den första fasen gestaltas förändringen som konstnärens projektion
på kulturen, i den andra fasen omvandlas projektionen till ett dialogiskt tema i en
dialogisk och konstbaserad lärandepraktik och i den tredje fasen stiger förändringen som
process fram som ett multimodalt tolkningsredskap. Då en förändringsprocess förstås
som ett multimodalt tolkningsredskap blir det en slags levande metafor för lärande. Det
blir en figur som omskapas och förändras oberoende av vem som möter den och
oberoende av vilket tema som bearbetas genom den. De förändringsprocesser som
uppkom i dialogen mellan konstnären, läraren, eleverna och medforskarna anser jag att
kan konkretiseras genom ett vetenskapsteoretiskt resonemang om ett estetiskt
förhållningssätt till lärande.
Filosofen och pedagogen John Dewey (1980) menar att ett estetiskt förhållningssätt till
något handlar om att man koncentrerar sig på att synliggöra hur människans upplevelser
och erfarenheter av ordning och kaos eller balans och obalans kommer till uttryck. För
att koncentrera de lager av konst- och lärandeupplevelser som var närvarande i den
konstbaserade lärandepraktiken närmade jag mig rhizomet som figur för den förändring
som sker i estetiska lärprocesser.
Tusen Platåer
Med stöd i Deuleuzes och Guattaris (2004) teorier om rhizomet som meningsskapande
aktivitet framhåller jag att ett estetiskt förhållningssätt til lärande ligger i att iaktta,
reflektera och tolka, inte endast förklara, själva upplevelsen av att överskrida tidigare
erfarenheter. Det handlar om att överskridningen, som jag för klarhetens skull här
definierar som en lärandeupplevelse, medvetandegörs på ett sätt som berör både känsla
och intellekt. Till exempel är ett estetiskt förhållningssätt till lärande och bildning att
25
samtala om att människor upplever behag inför sådant som underlättar överskridningen
och obehag inför sådant som försvårar eller hindrar överskridningen. Det både-och samt
den kunskap som skapas i dialogen mellan människor är inte lineär utan nomadisk. Den
rör på sig och förändras.
Figur 1. En rhizomatisk figur för hur man kan vandra genom en konstbaserad lärprocess.
Rhizomet gör det möjligt att pröva ett estetiskt förhållningssätt till lärande. Rhizomet
kan användas både för att förstå hur man kan närma sig pedagogiskt handlande i en
konstbaserad lärandepraktik och hur man kan reflektera och respondera lärande på en
estetisk nivå. Rhizomet uppmanar iakttagaren av figuren att aktivt bearbeta det som
prövas i själva rhizomet. Rhizomet är inte en modell som direkt går att applicera på
något utan snarare en metafor för föreställningsförmågan som man behöver för att
förhålla sig estetiskt till lärande. Den försöker fånga upp ett förhållningssätt där man
med hjälp av fantasin överskrider tidigare kunskap och erfarenheter genom en medveten
tolkningsprocess. Man kan stiga in i rhizomet från olika ingångar och pröva olika
tolkningsmönster. Rhizomet kan liknas vid ett tolkningsrum eller ett spel, en organiserad
lek, där man vid olika mötespunkter gör val som leder vidare till nya tolkningsmönster.
Utgången söker man utgående från de intentioner och mål man haft då man stigit in, men
själva tolkningsrummet, rhizomet kan förändra det ursprungliga målet så att man då man
stiger ur rhizomet väljer en annan utgång än den förutbestämda. Den här metaforen,
rhizomet är ett resultat av bildningsresan, av livsprojektet. Rhizomet är ett utkast som jag
genom fortsatt forskning ser fram emot att vidareutveckla, precisera och förfina.
26
Avslutande ord
Barn, unga och vuxna ser fram emot dialoger där de kan skapa sig själva tillsammans
med andra, men dialogerna skapas ofta i en virtuell kultur. Studien som jag idag
försvarar artikulerar på basen av metareflekterade erfarenheter att stimulerande
undervisningsmiljöer kan skapas i i skolan i samarbete mellan olika yrkesutövare. För
att samarbetet skall vara fruktsamt behöver de som undervisar reflektera över sin
yrkesidentitet i dialog med andra och ha god insikt i andra yrkesutövares
professionsprofil. Då samarbetet sker i en pedagogisk miljö skall fokus vara på den
lärande individen som är med i ett socialt lärandesammanhang. Avhandlingen synliggör
att utbildning i allt större grad behöver skapa dialoger om individens föreställningar och
fantasier. Det här för att människor verkligen skall se fram emot dialogen som en
meningsskapande och människobildande aktivitet. Skolan kan vara den kultur där
människor ser fram emot dialoger som sker i direkta samtal och möten.
Här idag avslutar jag en bildningsresa. Jag gör det genom att konstatera att för mig är
lärande inte endast resans mål utan det är verkligen en resa, ett tillstånd som jag
framhåller att handlar om hur man förhåller sig till förändring.
Till allra sist. Att uppmärksamma, gestalta och göra förändring meningsfullt, det är det
som konst, pedagogik och forskning har gemensamt.
27
Referenser
Bourriaud, N. (1998/2002). Relational Aesthetics. Dijon: Les presses du réel.
Deleuze, G. & Guattari, G. (1980/2004). A Thousand Plateaus. United Kingdom:
Continuum International Publishing Group.
Dewey, J. (1934/1980). Art as Experience. New York: Perigree Books.
Gadamer, H-G. (1997). Sanning och metod. I urval av Arne Melberg. Göteborg:
Daidalos.
Kemp, P. (1992). Emmanuel Lévinas. En introduktion. Göteborg: Daidalos.
Polanyi, M. (1967). The tacit dimension. London: Routledge.
Sava, I. (2003). Taidepedagogiikka tutkimusalana. Helsinki: Taideteollinen korkeakoulu,
taidekasvatuksen osasto.
Utbildningsstyrelsen (2004). Läroplansgrunder för grundläggande utbildning.
Helsingfors: Utbildningsstyrelsen.
28
3. Theatre youth performances as educational experiences:
Drama educators creating interpretive zones
Liora Bresler
Abstract
This paper, based on an in-depth three-year study of a performing arts center (PAC),
explores the educational opportunities of Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA), attending
to the perspectives of various “stake-holders”. I draw on this study to reflect on the
possibilities of further educational impact of these performances, suggesting a bigger
role for drama educators in facilitating students’ learning and experiences.
Theatre with a direct educational purpose, within and beyond the formal sectors of
education, has a long and varied history throughout the English-Speaking world (e.g.,
Hughes, Jackson & Kidd, 2007). TYA, referring to adult actors performing scripted plays
for young people, is part of what I refer to (across the various arts discipline, including
music, visual arts, dance, and drama) as “arts for children” (Bresler, 1998). In this
setting, TYA overlapped artistically with “fine arts” or “folk/indigenous art”,
occasionally meandering to popular arts, with close attention to “developmentally
appropriate” contents and pedagogies.
The TYA performances in the study target students brought by their classroom teachers
during the traditional school day. These performances, I suggest, can be understood as a
hybrid genre, existing in a space between schools and the art worlds of theatre. Schools
and the theatre worlds are characterized by divergent goals, different sets of values, and
corresponding structures. School focus predominantly on verbal and mathematical
literacies, whereas theatre consists of diverse media -- kinaesthetic, musical, visual.
Schools highlight conventional, factual knowledge, whereas the arts are expressive,
addressing, affectively and cognitively, the ancient and complex domain of the human
condition. Structurally, schooling is a continuous, long-term process, whereas theatre
performances are a one-time event, separate in time and space from mundane life,
lending itself more easily to intensified experiences. And of course schools are
compulsory, whereas theatres are voluntary.
Conceptual frameworks
In conceptualizing this study, I adopted a curricular perspective, regarding theatre
performances as a form of curriculum. The word curriculum stems from the Latin word
for race-course, referring to the course of activities and experiences through which
children grow to become mature adults. The curriculum encompasses not only
experiences occurring in school but the entire scope of formative experiences occurring
in and out of school, including experiences that are unplanned and undirected (cf.
Walker, 2003).
Philip Jackson’s notions of the “hidden curriculum” (Jackson, 1968), as well as Elliot
Eisner’s “implicit curriculum” (Eisner, 1979) provide useful lenses to investigate the
typically unstated learning that occurs in drama performances. Attending to the various
stake-holders of the curriculum and their perspectives, John Goodlad (1979), and his
29
associates identified five layers of curriculum: (i) the ideal curriculum; (ii) the formal
curriculum (materials and textbooks); (iii) the operational curriculum (observed by
researchers); (iv) the perceived curriculum (teachers’ perspectives); and (v) the
experienced curriculum (students’ experiences). This study explored the ideal, formal,
operational and perceived curricula1 of youth theatre performances, using observations,
analysis of materials (e.g., performing centre mission, program notes), and semistructured interviews with artists, classroom teachers, and the staff of the performing arts
centre.
Artists’ performances, and their educational value for students are practically an
unchartered territory in the body of research literature in music and dance education. In
contrast, the field of drama education provides some compelling research related to
youth performances. Jeanne Klein’s research on the teachers’ responses to performances
(Klein, 1995) and the work of Klein and Shifra Schonmann on theatre as a medium for
young people (Schonmann, 2006, 2007; Klein and Schonmann, 2009) centre on
children’s experiences, investigating, among other things, the aesthetic principles that
children practice when they participate as spectators in theatre created and performed by
adult artists.
In Scandinavia, the work of Stig Eriksson, Kari Heggstad, and Anna-Lena Ostern
address issues of theatre for young audiences. This present paper aims to add to the
literature, examining the physical, conceptual, and cultural meeting-point between
schools and performing arts centres, and a focus on classroom teachers and artists’
perspectives.
Setting
In looking for a performing art centre, I chose a “best case”, a leading centre with a track
record that has received much acclaim for its programs. Prairie Centre for the
Performing Arts2 is a professional and educational arts complex in a Midwestern town in
the USA and part of a big research university. The Youth Series is one of the many
offerings of the centre. The Youth Series draws school children from the immediate and
surrounding communities within a 100 mile radius, ranging from pre-kindergarten
through grade 12 chaperoned by their classroom teachers 3.
Youth Series tickets are marketed and sold exclusively to schools 4. After a school order
is placed it is reviewed by Prairie staff. Pending availability the school receives a
contract from the Prairie Centre confirming that they are able to accommodate their
group and verifying the billing amount. Teachers need to sign and return the contract; if
they do not return the contract and pay for the tickets by stated deadlines, the tickets may
be released to schools on the waiting list for each performance. All of the confirmed
schools receive Teachers' Guides and Stage Pages (consisting mostly of suggested
activities and relevant information) by mail in advance of the performance. Those are
meant to facilitate preparation for the children before they come to the performance, as
well as for follow-up afterwards. The staff of the performing arts centers were highly
attentive to school audiences when presenting their Youth Performances, recognizing the
diverse nature of the organizations, in terms of their structures, contexts, aims and
expectations.
1
Students perspectives were, for the most part, attended by observations and comments of
teachers, rather than direct interviews.
2Not a real name.
3 Because of scheduling issues, it is typically classroom teachers rather than dance/drama teachers
who accompany the children, even when drama teachers are present.
4 though individuals can be accommodate on the day of the performance depending on availability.
30
Youth performances consisted of drama, music, and dance. Drama was responsible for
the majority, about three-fourth, of the performances. Just like theatre for adults, these
drama performances encompassed a range of dramatic genres, including fables from
various cultures for elementary grade students (e.g., Murfaro’s daughters; David
Gonzalez: The frog Bride); living history and productions related to major historical
figures (e.g., Teddy Roosevelt and The Treasure of Ursa Major); musicals (e.g., A chorus
line); classic plays adopted to contemporary reality (e.g., Anon (ymous), based on
Homer’s Odyssey); and one actor plays (e.g., Hooked). Targeted age groups ranged from
early childhood (pre-kindergarten to kindergarten), through elementary (grades 1-5), to
secondary schools (grades 6-12).
Prairie’s mission and vision: The ideal curriculum
Prairie Centre for the Performing Arts is dedicated to the advancement of the education,
research, and public engagement mission of the University through the pursuit of
excellence and innovation in the performing arts.
As a component of the College of Fine and Applied Arts, the Centre supports the belief
that creativity is a core human characteristic and that the arts and the ideas surrounding
them-hold unique and transformative potential. Through its multiple and deeply
integrated roles as classroom, laboratory, and public square, and in collaboration with the
academic programs of theatre, dance, and music-as well as with the broader University,
local, national, and international communities-the Centre serves as a touchstone for the
exploration and expansion of human experience. Embracing the art of the past as well as
the art of our time, the Centre is equally committed to the creation of new work and the
shared process of discovery. (from the webpage of Prairie Performing arts centre).
Methods
This is part of a bigger project that investigated over 36 months and three performance
seasons music, drama, and dance performances in Prairie, including performances for
adults, family concerts, and outreach sessions for university students and the larger
community. Data collection spanned from 2006-20095. In the Youth Series part of the
study, we6 conducted multiple observations of 19 different performances, including 15
drama performances; and semi-structured interviews with 11 performers, 26
participating teachers, Prairie staff, and numerous audience members. We also drew on
extensive email commentary from audience members and analysis of program notes and
archival materials.
Preliminary data analysis occurred concurrently with data collection. The extensive
field-notes, and memo writing, consisting of hundreds of files, were organized into a
project file using NVIVO 8.0 qualitative data analysis software7 . We used emergent code
analyses to code all documents, with a foundation in the codes and themes that emerged
in early analyses. In-depth analysis and writing on the various themes and (still)
unfolding issues have started in Spring 2009 and is expected to continue for the next
couple of years.
5
My talk in the IDEA-Boreal conference in Vasa, Finland, was the first time I have reported on the
drama aspect. It was in the conference that I learned about the compelling work of Kari
Heggstad, Stig Eriksson, and Anna-Lena Østern related to my own interests and work.
6 Data collection included several cycles of researchers. Jolyn Blank, Wei-Ren Chen, Koji
Matsunobu, and Gabriel Rusinek participated in the first year of the study; Julia Panke Makela has
participated in the second and third years.
7 accomplished by Julia Panke Makela.
31
The situated researcher
My own background, as backgrounds invariably do, shaped the study and the choices of
my “lenses”. I was enculturated as a pianist and later, musicologist, and directed the
music activities at the Tel-Aviv Museum, the largest venue for chamber music in Israel,
before I “converted” to academia. My transition to the U.S. involved not only crossing
geographical but also disciplinary borders, from music to education. Working on my
doctorate with Elliot Eisner and Decker Walker, I became fascinated by curriculum,
especially arts curriculum, as reflecting and shaping consciousness and values.
My research on arts education in public schools included arts performances, typically
those created by children for other children and community (Bresler, 1991); those
presented by artists visiting schools (Bresler, 1991; Bresler, Wasser & Hertzog, 1997);
and on one occasion, performances involving out of school visits (Bresler, 1991).
However, it was this present study with its sustained focus on performing arts centers
that took me back, in a spiral gesture, to my background of performing arts centers. The
current focus on performances in performing arts centers aimed to focus on Youth
Performances in more depth, to investigate how they were perceived by the artists,
teachers, and the performance center staff, and to explore the learning opportunities they
afforded. The conceptual frameworks of curriculum, as well as aesthetics (e.g., Broudy,
1972; Dewey, 1934; Greene, 1995) and anthropology (e.g. Moore & Myerhoff, 1977;
Turner, 1982) provided “distancing” lenses for the study, in the dual function of making
the familiar strange, as well as the strange familiar.
Attending a play, like breathing, talking, reading, and writing this paper, is fluid,
constantly moving. The words of musicologist David Burrows (1990), “Where sight
gives us physical entities, the heard world is phenomenally evanescent, relentlessly
moving, ever changing”, apply equally well to drama. The bracketing involved in the
theatre by its conventions and structures provides a frame that distances the event from
real life, similar to the ethnographic mindset and the function of text (Schonmann, 2006).
Distancing, as Stig Eriksson’s (2009) suggested in his dissertation, is essential to drama.
Involvement in drama as creators, performers, and audience members requires that we
engage with the evanescent aspects of world, cultivating sensibilities and skills. The
curricular, aesthetic and anthropological conceptual frameworks and lenses facilitate a
distancing from the familiar, ever-changing familiar experiences.
Classroom teachers’ perspectives: The perceived curriculum
When inviting teachers who brought their students to the Performing center to be
interviewed for the study, I was worried that they won’t respond. I was relieved to
receive about 50 responses, out of which I selected 25 teachers, targeting diversity of
locations, from the university town where the center exists, to small rural places and
neighboring towns. I also selected for different age groups, including early childhood,
elementary and secondary levels. Interviews took place at the Center and lasted for about
60-90 minutes, but sometimes as long as two hours. Below I identify some of the themes
that emerged from these interviews, representing common issues. All teachers talked
about Prairie as a space representing a sophisticated life-style, mentioning the elegance
of the space, so different from other settings (e.g., being in a lobby, the velvet seats, the
acoustics of the theater, the etiquette of handing the ticket to an usher.) Good behavior
and self-control were central. As one elementary school teacher said:
Prairie is a more elegant experience than other field trips. It requires a lot more selfcontrol on the part of the children. Whereas at the pumpkin patch they can run and be
loud and dirty and messy, Prairie is kind of prim and proper, which is good. It’s more
sedate, more cultural, fine arts [experience]. Although the performances can be very
loud and boisterous, the audience is very well behaved.
32
Many teachers talked about the “real quality experience” that Prairie provided, “taking in
the sights and sounds”, “the magic of the theater experience”, contrasting it with TV
shows (“they are such a TV generation: exposed to so much inappropriate stuff”. They
talked about a space for full engagement, performance as uninterrupted time, without
bells, announcement on the intercom, children coming and going. Many lamented that
“so many of our kids are at-risk. That creativity--they’re not developing it.” Prairie
performances, teachers said, allowed for “planting a seed for creativity and wonder and
enjoyment.”
Underlying their comments, and sometimes expressed explicitly, was teachers’ worry
about the damaging effect of the popular arts—their contents, and the inappropriate set
of behaviours they evoke. A related concern8 was the use of inappropriate language and
taboo topics. When Prairie presented plays that addressed such topics (for example,
homosexuality or strong language in plays addressing race), many schools opted not to
attend. This reflected an attitude of avoiding difficult, and controversial issues. Indeed
raising controversial issues was likely to receive complaints from parents, often through
the principal and higher administration. Teachers saw school as needing to be a safe
place where children won’t be exposed to contentious topics, and/or bad language, no
matter what the purpose was.
In the general climate of pressure on schools on accountability and focus on testing, state
goals loom large. Prairie Center, aware of this pressure, included relevant state goals in
their materials for teachers (#26: “Through creating and performing, understand how
works of arts are produced”; and #27 “Understand the role of the arts in civilizations,
past and present.” as well as to the related benchmark, “Identify the distinctive roles of
artists and audiences.”). Teachers seem to attend to these goals. In the interviews,
teachers mentioned the youth series visits as an authentic way of teaching contextspecific cultural competence, specifically, ways of behaving, demonstrating manners,
self-control, and knowledge of site-specific routines. As a third grade teacher said: “You
want them to learn audience manners. That’s part of society. You can’t teach that in the
classroom necessarily. I want them to know how to perform in different scenarios in
public. It’s almost like a community-training.”
A central theme highlighted the diversity of cultural traditions, tolerance and respect,
pride in one’s heritage, and interest in other cultures. Particularly teachers in smaller
neighboring towns regarded Prairie as a venue for multi-cultural education. These
teachers told stories of isolation, fear, and intolerance. A rural kindergarten teacher
represents many others in her observations:
One of the things I think the children learn from Prairie is tolerance. They find that
different views are not just to be dismissed and not to be afraid of them. Just because
they don’t go to the Church of Christ, they are people just like us. . . I had a little boy
stand up and say, “I don’t believe in God. God is just in your head.” And I thought
they were going to crucify him. I’ve had other teachers tell me that teaching tolerance
isn’t very important. We’re here to teach them [academics]. But I’ve had children
come to me and say, “My grandfather says I can’t play with him because he’s black.”
Particularly because I teach in this small town, I now realize I can do more for these
children because I can show them things they might be missing. Maybe I can help
them to understand, or appreciate, different viewpoints.
Text was a central focus in preparation of students and as an anchor for understanding.
That was also true for a pre-K level. When asked about her favorite performances, a preK teacher shared: “For me, performances of The Giving Tree and How Much I Love You
were good. Those are things we could go out and find ahead of time [in books]. This
8
Possibly related to the more conservative value system of the American Midwest.
33
year [the plays] are more abstract, [referring to a puppet play with no text] and I don’t
know how to prepare them. “
Preparation of students emphasized reminding students of expected behavior before and
during the performances. Substantive, content-related preparation was occasional, most
commonly involving reading the story before the event, sometimes going through the
stage pages, or conducting an internet search on the artist. There were no references to
aesthetic elements, to form and expression, to a newness of style, to theatrical elements.
Follow-up after the play was sporadic: “when it comes up”, on the bus back to ask for
students’ impressions, on one occasion using the performance as an example when the
teacher was trying to illustrate a concept in drama like ‘voice’.
The formal and operational curricula
It was hard to choose one play out of the 15 drama performances we observed. There
were plays targeted for young children (ages 4-6) as well as for adolescents. Some plays
centered on the diversity in cultures; others related to an aspect of the curriculum such as
American history or a classic literary work; still others concentrate on crucial personal
and social issues. I chose a play belonging to the latter category, given the prevalence of
this theme across cultures. The performance, “Hooked”9 is an example of Grotowski
(1968, in Schonmann, 2007), “poor” theater, a contrast to a wealthy theater that goes to
great lengths to rival movies and television, where the actor is at the center of the
theatrical world, with few props, costumes, decoration, or stage machinery.
The “Stage pages,” mentioned above, sent for students with guidelines for teachers, are
developed by Prairie staff and volunteers (teachers, occasionally doctoral students.)
These materials offer background information on the performance and suggest projects
for teachers to integrate into the classroom before or after the performance. I note the
layout of these particular Stage pages: white text on dark background, much like a
computer screen, a cross between virtual and a brochure. The colors in the front pages
are subdued, followed by pages with warm colors. The touch of the paper is silky; not as
luxurious as the regular Prairie programs but weighty. The aesthetics of the page stages
send a message (albeit implicit) about values and sensibilities.
These stage pages for students include a set of scenarios and situations in response to
addiction and the consequences of different behavior, for example, how might the
students handle a situation if a friend or family member were involved.
A separate page titled “Tips4You”, starts with “Did you ever stop to think that each
performance you attend is unique and will never be exactly repeated? Unlike recorded
entertainment such a movies and music, a special connection between performers and
the audience is created at every single live play, musical, dance, and concert. The
performers onstage and technicians offstage can often see and hear you in the audience.
Your reactions and responses affect the overall performance. The page lists “easy things
you can do to create the perfect performance environment for yourself and everyone
involved”, including punctuality; throwing away gums in a lobby trash-can; and sharing
thoughts about the performance with teachers, parents, guardians, and friends.
The Stage-Pages contain a variety of activities, including designing an advertisement to
inform an audience about meth. The ad provides guidance and possibilities, including
attention to contents, perspectives, media, approach, and audiences, but is open-ended
and leaves plenty of room for students’ creativity. The Stage Pages also included
9
Not real name.
34
scenarios of temptations that are common at this age level; true stories of adolescences’
addiction and invitations to problem-solve in dealing with people.
Having looked at the Stage Pages, I am back to the lived experience of the performance,
the here and now. I take field-notes, keenly aware of Burrows’ words on the
“phenomenally evanescent, relentlessly moving, ever changing” reality of theater, so
different from the stable Stage-pages which I hold in my hands.
109:50.
I glance over the attendance list, seeing a mixture of high schools and middle
schools listed, with nearly 600 attendees. The set consists of a single microphone
stand and microphone in the middle of the stage. A single bottle of water sits on the
floor, a few feet in-front of the microphone. A screen makes up the backdrop, the
bottom half is covered in gory, drawn faces – the withdrawn, dead eyes of the zombies
from horror flicks. A reddish-orange light illuminates the pictures, brightest on the
bottom right corner and fading as it moves across. There is a large white face in the
center, eyes and drawn cheek bones denoted by black lines. Otherwise the face is pale.
It appears back lit with soft white lights. Across the top of the screen, on large, red,
block graffiti letters, is the word “Hooked,” A set of speakers on tall stands sits on
either side of the stage. Hip-hop music emanates from these speakers, not as loud as it
would be in a club. Rather, the volume is medium – can be clearly heard, but not so
loud as to drown out the buzz of conversation in the room.
The audience seem to be between 7th grade and 12th grades, 12 – 18 years old. The
dress is casual: jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts. About 1/3 of the audience in this audience
includes Blacks, Hispanic/Latino(a), and some Asian. It is now a little after 10am, and
kids are still settling in.
10:05. The lights dim. Immediately, enthusiastic cheers, applause, and shouting
emerge from the audience.
The lights go down completely. The eerie white face on the screen glows with that
eerie sickly-green color of glow-in-the-dark materials. Again, the audience cheers
rowdily. An actor takes the mic, and begins with a percussion scat. The audience
calms and quiets down. The actor begins by talking about zombie movies, how
zombies have changed over the years. In the old movies zombies stumbled and
wobbled, not really walked after their prey. An old video of the stumbling zombie is
projected on the white face of the back screen, illustrating the spoken words. But
today, zombies don’t stumble, they run… run after their prey with an endless craving
for flesh. This too is illustrated with video. “Craving flesh as much as air.” Then, he
begins a hip-hop riff. The kids clap with the rhythm, and call out: “hey! Hoooo! Hey!
Hoooo!” He sings: “The flesh is crystal meth 11.” The audience response, Julia notes,
feels more like we are at a hip-hop concert than a theater performance.
The actor, playing the role of Stan, easily evokes laughter and responses from the
audience. He speaks of pain… “low expectations are easy to fill.” Stan speaks of his
father’s heart attack happening in a sleazy hotel with his mistress. Stan speaks of how
he had to spend every other weekend with his father and his father’s girlfriend
because “some judge said it was so.” “Pops was always on me about everything.” The
text conveys the pain of being misunderstood, of feeling lost; the struggle of growing
up in a broken home, parents’ divorce, searching for one’s own identity in the turmoil.
10
This performance was attended by both Julia Panke Makela and myself. This abbreviated
vignette is taken primarily from Julia’s field-notes.
11 Methamphetamine is an addictive stimulant drug that strongly activates certain systems in the
brain. Street methamphetamine is referred to by many names, such as "speed," "meth," and
"chalk." Methamphetamine hydrochloride, clear chunky crystals resembling ice, which can be
inhaled by smoking, is referred to as "ice," "crystal," and "glass."
(retrieved from http://www.theantidrug.com/DRUG_INFO/drug_info_meth.asp)
35
I see the fire flames shine out prominently on the back screen in between the eerie
zombie faces – more prominently than I noticed earlier.
Stan tells the story of a school project that required students to write a report on what
one of their parents do for a living. His mother was between jobs, and his relationship
with his father was strained. What could he write? He went to class without a paper.
When it was his turn to read his paper, he stood up and provided a poetry jam instead.
The jam was filled with pain – “he uses all of his wrenches on me. Twisting and
turning my insides…” In response, the kids in the audience laugh! And, they laugh
particularly boisterously when Stan uses words that would not be approved of in
formal environments – ass, bitch, sexy motherfucker. The performance continues,
telling the story of addiction to meth, rehabilitation, struggles.
When the performance finishes, the actor offers to take questions from the audience.
We note quite a few questions, coming from students from different schools, of
different ages, and racial make-up. Q: “How old do you have be to join Green Thumb
Theater?” A: That depends on the show. Late teens, early 20s. I was 25.” Q: Is the
story true? A: “It is based on truth. All the physicality – the ticks, fidgeting, scabs, the
paranoia – that’s based on reality. Stan is not based on one person, but many people’s
stories. But, he might as well be – I’m sure there’s a Stan out there somewhere.” Q:
“Where did you learn to be such a good actor?” A: “Oh. Thank you. Well, I took
drama classes in high school. Then I studied theatre in when I went to a university.
Lots of workshops”. Q: “Did you go to see people who really did meth?” A: “I didn’t
choose to go that route. I live in Vancouver. The downtown east side is full of poverty,
addiction. So easy to see those people there. But I didn’t observe them first hand. I
read, watched videos, and learned through our director who lives in that area. He
walks down the street every day and sees it first hand. He molded my character.”
Q: “Do people who do meth actually look like they do in the meth commercials 12?” A:
“Yes. I think you guys have the Meth Project here, right? Yeah, it is actually based on
the Montana Meth Project. Go online and Google the pictures. Meth is totally
homemade – synthetic drug. Not like the natural stuff that makes up heroine, cocaine
– not that natural makes those good. (laughter) But meth is made by addicts for
addicts. You can find the stuff that’s in it online. For example: brake fluid, lighter
fluid, battery acid, window cleaner, nail polish remover. If you get a really good
blend, it’s like 80% meth. But, more likely it’s going to be 50 – 60% this stuff. This is
what you put in your body. Poisonous, corrosive chemicals in your system. I can take
one more question.” Q: “Um, do you know that zombies are not real? (Raucous
laughter in response. But, the actor quiets them quickly) “We’re drawing a parallel
here because people who use meth end up looking like zombies. And, because it is the
most addictive of all the drugs out there today. 40% who try it once are hooked. 80%
of those who try it twice. Most relapse in rehab. So, maybe zombies really do exist.”
When he finishes this response, conversations immediately pick up in the audience.
He calls out: “wait… one more important thing. If I can keep your attention for 60
more seconds, then I’ll let you go.” The buzz quiets down. “I’m not here to lecture
you or to tell you what to do with your life. We’re a theatre company. We just want to
get you thinking and talking about choices… ‘cause its going to happen. You’ll be at a
party and someone will offer you a drink, pipe, joint, pill, whatever. It’s your life. Do
whatever the hell you want. But, get the facts so you don’t put your life on a track that
you don’t want to go down. Let’s stop this problem.” And, he exits the stage.
12 Placed in newspapers and advertisements in town, showing the horrifying effect of the drug, to
warn against its use.
36
Conversations and commotion start instantly. The front rows are being dismissed. The
kids move quickly. In a few minutes, the hall is empty. Back to the academic curriculum.
Artists’ perspectives13
Asked about his goals, the actor said he has two goals: “good play, and empowering, to
enable to talk about issues”. “I am captivated by the questions and answers after the
show, where children seem to be really engaged. I really want to establish connection.”
The play was a success in North America. The artist tell ms that they were thinking of
doing only a few performances, but it keeps expanding and “the invitations keep
coming”. They now have had 320 performances. Audience’s responses cover a wide
spectrum. Enthusiastic audience members write in the webpage (some quoted in the
Stage Pages). There are other, sometimes unsettling, responses. He tells about a girl who
was shaking when she talked with him. “Turned out her father was addicted. She could
not talk to anybody for fear that she will be taken away.” He did not know what to say,
except suggests she talks to an organization counseling young people.
In conversations with artists’ of other performances, common goals expressed wanting to
reach to the audience, to create meaningful experiences that will help students reflect
about their life situations, and invite them to attend live performances.
Discussion
Much like Rashomon 14, and constructions of social reality in general, the same
performance holds different meanings to different stake-holders. Within Prairie’s mission
for the cultivation of creativity and the transformative potential of the arts, we note the
difference in emphasis between teachers’ and artists’ views. This difference, I believe,
has to do with the different value systems of schools versus the art-worlds. Because of
this value system, theater experience is not part of the worlds of classroom teachers’ and
students, in contrast, for example, with theater’s close kin, film, and its associations of
“fun” (as opposed to “serious”).
Jonathan Levy argues that, “film can, perhaps, stand for dreams and thoughts in some
ways no other art can. But theater – the only art whose precondition is that human beings
confront one another – can uniquely stand for life and thus is inexhaustible” (1990, p. 16,
in Schonmann, 2007). A theatrical experience, writes Schonmann (2007, 589) should
raise its participants to new heights of human existence. It is not necessarily cathartic but
it is connected to the basic experience that springs from the ongoing dialogue between
actors and their audiences, a dialogue that goes back to ancient rituals (ibid). I suggest
that this ongoing dialogue, though powerfully educational, does not typically
characterize school discourse.
Dialogue is created by the artistry of the performance, by the depth and cleverness of
contents, as well as by the aesthetic qualities (Broudy, 1972; Dewey, 1934; Greene,
1995). Qualities like believability, complexity, depth, and development of character are
central in inviting engagement. Theater performances provide an opportunity to perceive
and reflect. However, these need support and guidance.
Teachers’ tended to treat performances as text, (corroborating Klein’s 1995 findings.
There, too, teachers preferred familiar texts), prioritizing its explicit, informational
“transmitted” knowledge, rather than its implicit complex affective, and aesthetic
13
Because of space limitations, I provide here only a very brief summary of themes and issues
brought up by artists. A paper focusing on artists’ goals is now in progress (Bresler, in progress).
14 A 1950 award-winning film directed by Akira Kursawa, based on Akutagawa’s “In the Grove”
and “Rashomon”.
37
elements. The emphasis on the explicit was also manifested in classroom teachers’ focus
(as evidenced in their actions, as well as in the interviews) on behavior rather than
attitudes, highlighting management rather than experiential aspects of the play. Clearly,
experiences depend on behavior. However, behavior was presented as an aim of its own,
rather than a means for an expanded experience. Both of these emphases – behavior and
explicit texts—are reminiscent of the traditional academic (rather than artistic)
curriculum. In that sense, teachers’ viewed performances as imitating school values,
rather than as an opportunity to expand them (Bresler, 1994).
A progressive vision of curriculum offers some compelling alternatives. Following
Dewey, Louise Rosenblatt, for example, addresses literary experiences that include
“heightened sensitivity to the needs and problems of others remote from [the student] in
temperament, in space, or in social environment; he can have a greater imaginative
capacity to grasp abstract laws or political and social theories for actual human
lives” (Rosenblatt, 1983, 274; also in Connell, 2001, 40). Rosenblatt’s fundamental
message to educators is that aesthetic experiences can cultivate a critical connection
between “intellectual perception and emotional drive that is essential to any vital
learning process”. Rosenblatt suggests that aesthetic experiences, particularly those with
a wide range of diverse literary texts, could lead students to insights into human relations
that might be “more personally felt, perhaps more lasting” than the impersonal scientific
presentations (Connell, 2001, 40).
These discussions relate directly to the educational (and potentially, mis-educational)
impact of drama (Bresler et al., 1997; Gallagher and Booth, 2003; Klein, 1995;
Schonmann, 2007) and is centrally important to its existence in the schools. Schonmann
(2007) argues that appreciation, or critical reflection in drama theater education is the
weakest link, and is typically avoided. To fully benefit from the rich lessons that theater
performances can offer, we need to construct a bridge between the schools and the
theater. Classroom teachers, well-intentioned, even enthusiastic about the performances,
don’t typically have the professional tools and experiences to create that bridge. While
sessions with questions and answers, as we have seen in “Hooked”, have an important
educational function, these learning opportunities could be expanded within the schools.
Because theater performances, as discussed above, are a one-time event, there is no
allocated space for preparation and follow-up of substance. However, the issue goes
deeper. Because school contents, as part of its culture and ethos, focus predominantly on
verbal and mathematical literacies, and highlight conventional, factual knowledge,
classroom teachers are not prepared to deal with expressive, affective/cognitive domain.
Kinesthetic, musical, and visual intelligences are foreign languages. Here is where drama
teachers can be enormously helpful in facilitating students’ learning and expanding
perceptions.
Drama teachers as facilitating interpretive zones, connecting schools and the art
worlds
In supporting social/pedagogical learning– what John O’Toole refers to as learning
through drama (2007), as well as to the learning of aesthetic qualities in and through
drama (Broudy, 1972; Schonmann, 2006), drama educators can have a critical role in
facilitating what I identify as interpretive zone.
In an earlier work (Bresler, Wasser, Hertzog and Lemons, 1996; Wasser & Bresler,
1996), we proposed the concept of the interpretive zone as the intellectual realm in
which researchers work collaboratively. In the interpretive zone, researchers bring
together their various areas of knowledge, experience, and beliefs to forge new meanings
through the process of the joint inquiry in which they are engaged. In our conception of
38
the interpretive zone, we combined two important and closely linked hermeneutical
traditions: the philosophical, as represented by such thinkers as Dewey (1934), and
Gadamer (1975), and that which stems from interpretive anthropology, seen for example
in the work of Geertz (1973), and Turner (1982). In this paper, I suggest a zone,
facilitated by drama educators, that revolves around educational purposes, a space where
drama educators, classroom teachers, and artists could work together to expand
educational impact.
The concept of zone assumes more than one party—at least two if not more—competing,
negotiating, and interacting from different perspectives. Thus, the term zone, more than
the term interpretation, moves us away from the traditional image of the researcher or
the teacher as a lone, isolated figure working independently on a problem to that of a
socially embedded actor grounded in social interactions. In our reference to zone, we
drew upon diverse scholarly uses of the term as well as nonacademic uses. Among these
we noted Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (1986), and Bakhtin’s character
zones (1986). Non-academic uses include “speeding zone,” “demilitarized zone,” and
“intertidal zone.” What is similar about these notions of zones is that they refer to
unsettled locations, areas of overlap or contestation. It is within a zone that unexpected
forces meet, new challenges arise, and solutions have to be devised with the resources at
hand. The notion of zone implies dynamic processes—exchange, transaction,
transformation, and intensity. The characterization of zones differs according to the
context and the aspects of the collaborative interactions that are emphasized. Zones
range from the neutral (scaffolding), through the conflictual (borders, struggles, wars) to
the amicable (negotiation, alliances, overlap). Like Bakhtin (1986), we recognized the
interpretive zone to be socially and historically situated, that is, an imaginary location in
which multiple voices converge and diverge through the tensions imposed by centripetal
and centrifugal forces in action. This means that these spaces may take different forms in
the USA, as compared, for example, in Scandinavian countries.15
I suggest that drama specialists could be central in helping children and classroom
teachers gain more meaning, understanding, and knowledge by providing intellectual,
aesthetic, and emotional tools for perception, creating spaces to learn, share, and
contribute in a meaningful conversation.16
15 Eva Österlind pointed out that some regional theatre companies in Sweden have drama
educators among their permanent staff, for a long-term systematic co-work.
16 I am most grateful to Anna-Lena Østern who invited me to give the talk on which this paper is
based. Special thanks to Jolyn Blank, Wei-Ren Chen, Koji Matsunobu, and Gabriel Rusinek who
worked on this project in its first year, conducting observations and interviews with teachers; and
to Julia Panke Makela who has been working on this project in its second, third year, and now
fourth year, responsible, in addition to observations and interviews, for organizational issues, help
with literature review, and transferring the data to NVivo qualitative data analysis software. I am
indebted to Lidwine Janssens, Jeanne Klein, Eva Österlind, Anna-Lena Østern, and Shifra
Schonmann for their reading of this paper and their insightful comments.
39
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41
4. Three viewpoints on educational drama
Erkki Laakso
Abstract
The aim of this article is to tell what student teachers experienced during five workshops
of process drama, describe what kind of learning took place, and convey the central
principles concerning adult experiential learning seen from the perspective of drama
teacher. The basic idea is to illuminate these three areas and convey better
understanding of these for drama practicians. The structure follows these areas in order.
The basic sources are the doctoral thesis of the writer, Encountering drama experiences.
The learning potential of process drama in the light of student teachers experiences
(2004, fin), categories of learning described by Eklund-Myrskog (1996) and Adult
experiential learning (Malinen 2000). Process drama proved to be a rich working
method offering diverse and very individual experiences. Learning in process drama
represent broadly-based learning. Drama teachers should be aware of the
epistemological, existential, ethical and temporal dimension of process drama. This is
what I’ve been missing! Drama generates feelings, experience, LEARNING ABOUT
THESE THINGS!
This article is based on my doctoral thesis: Encountering drama experiences. The
learning potential of process drama in the light of student teachers experiences (2004). In
this article I will concentrate on three viewpoints closely related to my research. These
are: the area of students’ experiences, the learning potential of educational drama and the
dimensions of adult experiential learning. I feel these things remarkable. At the end I
present a figure, which is illustrating the learning potential of process drama transferred
to practical situations.
Aim of the study and the concept of experience
The central aim of the research was to throw light on what student teachers experience in
drama sessions during a basic course in educational drama and, on this basis, to arrive at an
understanding of the learning potential contained in drama work. Learning potential refers to
those learning opportunities that drama work offered. More detailed discussion of this
concept is found from the following writers (Braanaas 1988, 184; Neelands & Goode 2000,
97; Sæbo, 1998, 419; Østern 1994b, 141;).
If the starting point is the idea, that the experience of the students is attainable through
their diary entries, then it is a question of simplifying the experience. According to
Perttula, “the fact that in psychological research the experience is the object of reduction,
in practice means that irrespective of the description given by whoever is being studied
the researcher regards it as such as research data and the focus of study. Even if the
researcher is aware that the subject’s description is in one way or another distorted or
improbable, at the analysis stage the researcher must regard the subject’s description as
an expression of his or her experience and therefore as research data.(Perttula 1995, 44).
Research method
For the purposes of the study, five drama sessions were implemented. The selected
themes were: Goal, Consensus, Outsider (1-2) and Bullying. The conclusion of each
session involved students writing a diary (10 min.) about their drama experiences. The
43
research task was approached using the following questions: 1. What topic areas do the
students write about? What experiences of process drama do they highlight? 2. What
kind of learning do the students’ descriptions refer to in terms of theme? There were also
two subjects of investigation, which the researcher was interested in. What is the worth
of discussions in process drama? Is it true, as Dorothy Heathcote says, that drama is a
good means to teach different concepts, to make them familiar? This was tested in the
session Consensus. The researcher worked as the instructor of the course. The venue was
an ideal drama class.
The study is a case study where drama experiences are examined using a phenomenologicalhermeneutic approach. The collection of data was carried out using data triangulation (video
recordings, student diaries, questionnaires). In addition to writing a diary, students filled in
questionnaires on educational drama before and after the drama sessions. All the drama
sessions were video recorded. The subjects consisted of 27 third-year students (21 females
and 6 males), 25 of which were studying to become primary school teachers (grades 1-6). 11
of them (5f and 6m) studied in order to become also drama teachers. For the study they were
divided into two groups. The drama sessions were preceded by lectures presenting the main
concepts and stages in the development of educational drama. The planning and
implementation of the drama sessions followed the Heathcote/Bolton tradition, the so called
“Newcastle school”´( Bolton 1979, 1992; Wagner 1999;
O’Neill.
1995; Neelands & Goode;
2000; Bowell & Heap 2001). The model for every session was adapted from Pamela
Bowell’s drama work called Ishi, the theme of which is outsider. This research was done in
an attempt to map out the areas which had offered learning experiences. With regard to the
themes selected, the study also sought to find out what kind of learning could be considered
to have taken place in qualitative terms.
Process
drama
offers
diverse
and
very
individual
experiences
Process drama proved to be a rich working method. Students wrote intensively about
their experiences. On the basis of an analysis of the diary entries, five areas of
significance were formed to include any accumulated learning experiences: the theme
dealt with, teacher hood, educational drama, self reflection and evaluation of various
matters that arose.
44
In every area of significance various subcategories were found. The understanding of the
theme was studied in the light of learning potential. Teacher hood included the following
categories: the teacher’s task, connection to educational theories, application and the
teacher’s responsibility. Under educational drama the subcategories had the labels: basic
elements of drama (theme, story, language, strategies), teaching method, typical features
of work (action, feelings, empathy, superficial vs. deep, influence on motivation), and
the importance of discussion. In the frame of self-reflection the following categories
were formed: the evaluation of one’s own work, personal interface, self-knowledge and
personal wishes. Finally, under the main category of evaluation, the focus was on the
work in general, one specific drama session, the importance of the group, what were
good and personal wishes.
All this has of course to do with the learning potential of drama, which will be separately
discussed later in connection to understanding the theme, which was the main goal in
each session. For instance in the subcategories of teacher’s task we got answers to
following questions: how students understand the teachers task, how they had
understood the connection between drama work and the constructivistic learning theory,
according which the institution educated teachers-to-be. The elder students were better in
this than the younger. It may be underlined that the whole orientation in process drama is
constructivistic. Many expressed, even from the first session how the session would be
suitable for their classroom work, what changes they would perhaps make in it and what
kind of things they could experiment from the given idea. The subcategory teacher's
responsibility gathered sentences, which had comments with regard to the possible
adverse effects of negative roles. This can be interpreted so that the learning potential of
process drama includes all these areas, because the diary entries was a consequence of
drama sessions and rich discussion which happened before, between and after the drama
work.
Under educational drama students commented the basic elements of drama: theme, story
(pre-text), language and strategies. The themes were experienced to be good. This is
important, because if we want promote meaningful learning through drama, the themes
should be important for the learners. Because two of the workshops were situated in
historical times, some of the students were thinking if they should they speak ordinary
Finnish or an archaic version of it. Also other question concerning language was brought
up. The important drama strategies were warmly accepted and students showed interest
in the potential of drama strategies for opening up different viewpoints. The students´
response to the method was unambiguously positive and they emphasized those features
of it that promoted learning. The activity was greeted with satisfaction. They noted the
role of feelings in behaviour and internalized the striving for in-depth working that is
characteristic of this method. They learned to put themselves in another person's place
and to feel empathy for him or her. The motivation boosting effect of process drama was
also noted. The significance of discussion in terms of opening up viewpoints and deeper
understanding of an issue was acknowledged to be central.
Under educational drama the subcategories had the labels: basic elements of drama
(theme, story, language, strategies), teaching method, typical features of work (action,
feelings, empathy, superficial vs. deep, influence on motivation), and the importance of
discussion. Some of the students enjoyed the action like children and showed that the
need of action can be strong also among adult learners. The students’ response to the
method was unambiguously positive and they emphasized those features of it that
promoted learning. The activity was greeted with satisfaction. They noted the role of
feelings in behaviour and internalized the striving for in-depth working that is
characteristic of this method. They learned to put themselves in another person's place
and to feel empathy for him or her. The motivation boosting effect of process drama was
45
also noted. The significance of discussion in terms of opening up viewpoints and deeper
understanding of an issue was acknowledged to be central.
Self-reflection occurred frequently. Students assessed their own activity in terms of
others' expectations of them, their own performance as well as their own contribution
and mental alertness. The personal interface took the form of an activation of earlier
experiences and memories, which in turn aroused discussion on them. Self-knowledge
was revealed when students considered the situations encountered in drama work in
relation to their own selves. In addition they expressed personal wishes regarding how
they worked. Self-reflection predominated in the data. The camera was considered to
have had only a temporary disturbing effect.
Evaluation focussed on work in general, the individual drama session as an entity, the
significance of the group and on what had been good. The viewpoint also included some
critical comments, the main one of which was that there had been insufficient time for
the summary discussion and that some sessions had been too hurried. In working
students learned about group dynamics: the effect of the group on the individual,
working in a group and the individual's effect on the group. One important point to
emerge was the individual's 'protecting into drama', since the group was experiencing
process drama for the first time. This meant that the students had not been rushed into
presenting episodes to each other, something that was considered good. Apart from
learning related to the themes, the learning potential of process drama became apparent
in the areas of empathy, self-knowledge, group dynamics and of artistic experiences.
The importance of encouraging people to express themselves was emphasized, as was
the strengthening of self-confidence. Mention was made of the motivational boost
provided by drama work.
Process drama is a good mean to teach concepts. Discussions are important for
deeper understanding
Both the diary entrees and the questionnaire confirmed that process drama is a good
mean in clarifying concepts. Consensus became familiar to the participants. Both the
diary entrees and the questionnaire confirmed also that the discussions in drama are
important. The significance of discussion in terms of opening up viewpoints and deeper
understanding of an issue was acknowledged to be central. After this the instructor’s idea
of learning in process drama is examined. It has two basic elements: first, the importance
of discussion before, inside and after the episodic drama work; second, the idea that can
be expressed in the phrase “the group decides”, which refers, for example, to the health
of the group and their willingness to commit into drama work. This idea will is
illustrated in the following figure.
46
In this figure, the idea is that we start the work on a basic level, which can be seen as an
superficial one. But according the group we can go on to deeper levels as the different
thoughts illuminate the theme like spots illuminate the scene in theatre work. To day I
would broaden my figure also sideways, to present the thought, that we do not only
deepen but we also broaden our viewpoints through discussions.
An interesting contrast to this can be seen in the later thoughts of Dorothy Heathcote.
She has written: “The main drama ingredients are the development of the self-spectator,
the shaping of work in action; and the emergence of reflective monitoring during the
work, rather than discussion afterword’s. This monitoring and reflection were
particularly noticeable from the beginning of the commission” (Heathcote 2003, 16-24).
Process drama represents the broadly based categories of learning
In this research study there were two focal points concerning learning. The first was how
the methodology used succeeds in transferring the ability to use process drama, and how
well the ideas are understood concerning, for example, the philosophy, language,
concepts and strategies used in drama work of this kind. The second concerned the
quality of learning which may be attained through this kind of work.
The teaching/learning process was organized using the model of experiential learning
(Kolb 1984, 23) so that: (1) the episodic drama work took place; (2) after it there was a
shared discussion about the theme, and then (3) the instructor summarized the whole
each time giving more information about the approach used; (4) after this the
participants wrote a diary entry answering these questions:.” Write about your thoughts,
feelings, behaviour and experiences connected to the drama work we have done today.”
With these experiences the participants moved on to the next session. Thus, the target
was a cyclical, cumulative process lasting eight weeks during which the methodology of
process drama was meant to be adapted at a basic level. In giving information the
instructor conveyed the philosophy, the ‘heathcotian’ language and strategies connected
to ‘drama of understanding’, the so-called Heathcote/Bolton tradition. The ‘heathcotian’
language was based on Sandra Hesten’s dissertation (1994) and strategies in Jonothan
Neeland’s work (1991).
47
The motivation among students was high and persisted during the work. After the period,
19 of them (out of a total of 26) 1 answered that they were very willing to use
educational drama. Everyone answered that they had been given a moderate or good
readiness for using drama. In terms of drama strategies, there was a clear movement
towards better knowing. It came also out that 23/26 had learnt to trust in their classmates
well or very well. 21/26 had learnt to trust in drama during the drama work well or very
well and 23/26 expressed that their had learnt to trust in the instructor well or very well.
(Likert scale)
Many positive consequences were expressed in the diary entries. The work was told to
foster personality development, increase self-expression and strengthen self-confidence.
It was also mentioned that work developed the ability to identify and live a part, the
skills to work in a group and increased motivation. It affected positively also to the
group spirit. - If we say that drama does all these mentioned things, that is not true.
Drama may cause these kinds of positive consequences, but most often individually. So
better to speak about the learning potential of drama, which can be regarded as high.
The learning potential of drama
The learning potential of drama has awaked much interest in recent years. The central
aim in this research was to throw light on what student teachers experience in drama
sessions during a basic course in educational drama and, on this basis, to arrive at an
understanding of the learning potential contained in drama work. The focus was on the
quality of learning. Eklund-Myrskog (1996) has summarized various studies of
conceptions of learning from the point of view of the European phenomenographic
tradition. According to Lonka (1997) the following categories of learning were
confirmed: learning as 1) a quantitative increase in knowledge; 2) learning as
memorizing; 3) learning as application; 4) learning as a conceptual, qualitative change
of meaning; 5) learning as a constructive activity aimed at understanding; 6) learning
as an interpretative process aiming at better understanding of reality; and 7)
Learning as a personal change.
We may go through these categories and ponder their part in this research and generally
in process drama. The quantitative increase (1) is seldom the real target in drama
teaching but it happens, depending on the subject. For instance, the drama “The Birch
and the Star”, situated in the Great Northern War between Sweden and Russia,
contained much informative material. An example of (2) is seen in the diary entry:
“after today's active, personally involving and emotional work I think I understand its
meaning and will also remember today's action later on”. Learning as memorizing is
intimately bound up with drama work. Its power is based on the holistic way of
learning. All three aspects - information, feelings and the body - are activated. I
remember a student who visited my office about three years after she had left the
university. She said: “I have forgotten almost everything I learned at university, but
what we did here, I remember”. Category (3), Learning as application, was a real
challenge for the students and the instructor, because this was precisely the reason for
this course. The students had the opportunity to adapt certain strategies during the
course when they were repeated in the following sessions. The students considered the
drama sessions, or parts of them, to be suitable for their own classroom work. They
also came up with suggestions for adapting them and mentioned their own desire to
experiment as well as the opportunity to try and influence their pupils’ attitudes by
means of role play work. As far as learning potential is concerned, process drama
seems to be a perfect tool to learn drama teaching.
1
One student of 27 was missing and did not fill the questionnaire 2.
48
The central focus of this research is the learning potential of process drama. The
research question concentrated on the following themes: goal, consensus, the outsider,
bullying. When turning to the more broadly based categories of learning (4-7), we
arrive at the area proper of process drama. Because we work in the framework of
‘drama for understanding’, then it is meaning making, understanding of different things
(also emotions) and the realities round us that become of focal importance. You may
add the possibility of personal change as a small option in the work. Especially
category (5), learning as a constructive activity aimed at understanding, is closely
connected to process drama because in this category, the active role of the learner is
emphasized, and there was an active process going on all the time. In this category the
active role of the learner is emphasized - These categories were found in the diary
entries. Because the most important outcomes were expected to occur in learning about
the theme, the examples are taken from these diary entries:
- Learning as a conceptual, qualitative change of meaning. (Category 4). “By means
of drama difficult concepts like this are becoming understandable. This thing should
absolutely be used more at school.”
- Learning as a constructive activity aimed at understanding (Category 5)
“I didn’t experience the lack of information as a drawback, rather I was constantly
constructing the information in a new way. Information about the environment at that
time, the language, patterns of behaviour, rules, values, etc. But also information
about yourself so you could perform the role as your own self and because of that be
able, like, to look at your own activity from the outside and analyse yourself from the
outside.”
- Learning as an interpretative process aiming at better understanding of reality
(Category 6)
“At the experiential level the exercises were good, thinking about both myself and the
pupils. Even in Finnish history there are situations like in modern Yugoslavia; the
break-up of families, maybe death, sadness, distress.” (Student’s underlining).
- Learning as a personal change through drama (Category 7) “How to change to
become a more caring fellow human being; how to care about other people in a way
that would be really useful.”
“For my own part I would warmly welcome the arrival of depth in my life, depth that
these dramatizations brought to mind.”
This represents an existential layer: the learner may change as a person as a result of the
learning process. It is not realistic to argue that a personal change actually happened for
somebody as a result of the work, but as the rector of Jyväskylä University, prof. Aino
Sallinen, once said: “Most often we get something started and hope that those things
will develop as time goes on.” These kinds of sentences, which refer to personal change
or aiming at it, could be found in the diaries.
There were two extra questions to which the instructor wanted an answer. The first was
the usefulness of process drama in teaching concepts. This is something that Dorothy
Heathcote says she can guarantee in her teaching. The second was the value of
discussions in drama work. What kind of role do discussions have, big or small? The
answer was the same through the diaries and the questionnaire. Drama proved to be
suitable for the learning of universals and concepts. The significance of discussion in
terms of opening up viewpoints and deeper understanding of an issue was
acknowledged to be central.
As far as learning from the themes was concerned, it became apparent that the learning
occurring in process drama represents categories that describe broadly-based learning:
learning as a qualitative change of meaning, learning as a constructive activity aimed at
understanding, learning as an interpretative process aiming at a better understanding of
49
reality. The most broadly-based category of learning, where learning is seen as a
personal change, can receive impulses from drama work. The results show that process
drama is a suitable working method, when the purpose of teaching is understanding, the
discovering of new viewpoints or the extending of learning beyond the learning
situation in order to deal with universal or ontological questions. By means of drama
one is able to find new viewpoints, understand different ideas and develop a personal
stance on the theme being investigated. Thematic study, which is part of process drama,
creates the pre-conditions for realizing the artistic work that accompanies it: for learning
through and learning in drama. The factors connected to the learning potential of
process drama are illustrated in the following figure.
Process drama and adult experiential learning
The understanding of adult experiential learning is not too well-known and is most
important in the practical drama work, where the interaction happens in a special way.
For this reason and for promoting field work in drama, the valuable visions from Anita
Malinen’s doctoral dissertation (2000) are largely referred in the following lines.
According to Malinen, the starting point for learning is personal experiential knowing,
where first-order experiences intertwine with personal knowledge. This knowledge has
a rigid part and an elastic part. Using concepts created by Lakatos, Malinen believes that
this personal experiential knowing contains a rigid part, a ‘hard core’, which includes
the most basic opinions of the learner. Around this hard core there is a ‘protective belt’
which contains more elastic ideas. The experiential learning of an adult is a
reconstructive process, which corrects defects in personal experiential knowing. The
process may affect either the hard core or the protective belt, which from the viewpoint
of the learner is a safe area seen.
The second category of experience is the ‘second order experience’, which initiates the
reconstruction process. Experiential learning in drama is leaning through drama (or with
the help of it), because the known becomes unknown. Drama work is a source of such
second order experiences, both with experiences born out of actual dramatic activity and
50
out of the discussions concerning the work. The adult learner’s attitude towards second
order experiences is crucial. Through ‘the protective belt’ she can (1) totally deny them
so that they do not touch her at all; (2) let them into the area of ‘the protective belt’ and
invent her own explanations (auxiliary hypotheses), thus avoiding opportunities for
regeneration embedded in experiences; (3) ‘loosen the belt’ and let the experiences into
the area of the ‘hard core’, when they can work as renewing learning experiences. In
this kind of choice situation, is also the participant. She can engage in the action or
leave herself as more or less of an outsider. The more the learning process touches the
hard core of personal experiential knowing, the more revolutionary it is. The second
order experiences can take different forms and they can have different meanings for the
learners. On the basis of Malinen’s theory, the term ‘ripple’ has been used to describe
the fracture that has happened in the ‘protective belt’ during the learning process or as a
result of it. The ‘ripple’ arouses the need to revise the opinions located in the ‘hard
core’ and can be regarded as a goal for transformative learning.
Experiential learning is not just the addition of something to an individual’s knowledge
nor a change of meaning. Rather, it is a reconstruction process, which holistically
modifies an adult’s personal knowledge of the world. Nevertheless, within this
reconstruction process, more precise knowledge is created in such a way that the
structure of knowing, of the concepts that already exist, changes. The personal concepts
of the learner are surpassed in this endeavour to see the situation from a new
perspective. (Malinen 2000, 137).
Malinen considers that this personal experiential knowing consists of four dimensions:
epistemological, existential, ethical and temporal, which intertwine with each other.
The epistemological dimension is asymmetric and authoritative, which refers to the fact
that the educator is an epistemological authority.
The epistemological dimension is closely connected to the existential, which is in itself
the non-authoritative, asymmetric dimension of adult experiential learning. Malinen
considers that one special feature is characteristic of development inside the existential
dimension: the broadening of personal possibilities and especially the broadening of
receptivity. Receptivity as a personal ability then regulates the thickness of ‘the
protective belt’. If in drama a participant has the experience of being respected and of
her opinions being valued, then it is reasonable to suppose that ‘the protective belt’
becomes thinner and the desire for active participation grows. In this research I could
find evidence of the broadening of personal abilities, in sentences that talk about, for
example, empowerment and fostering of self-expression. The research findings, then,
indicate that these effects take place in process drama.
The temporal dimension emphasizes the importance of time in the learning process:
learning needs time. Meaning making can also take place after the learning situation.
The ethical dimension combines the epistemological and the existential and it includes
certain ethical principles, e.g., freedom and responsibility. According to Malinen, the
instructor is responsible for clarifying the epistemological viewpoints of the learners,
organising suitable second-hand experiences and directing the dialogue, especially in
the epistemological dimension. The instructor is also a human epistemological
authority, who has the duty to behave accordingly also within the existential dimension.
In this area adult participants ‘teach’ each other without knowing it, ‘by being’. The
key position is occupied by existential confrontation, by which we mean that the
participants and the instructor are able to meet each other as fellow human beings.
51
If both learner and instructor have their duty, they also have their freedom. The learner
has the freedom to decide whether to take part in the discussion, be it peripheral or
central. On the other hand, the participant has the freedom to commit herself or remain
uncommitted to new ‘facts’. Individual commitment is an essential part of adult social
learning because without commitment learning will not have taken place. Commitment
is bound up with assigning significance and therefore the decision to believe or not is
always made individually.(Malinen 2000, 138,139).
A key working method in process drama is the generating of commitment. It begins at
the outset with a so-called learning contract. Taking part in discussions remains an
individual decision. It is possible to activate the discussions by using pair work.
Malinen underlines that an individual with personal experiential knowing needs social
interaction in order to improve the epistemological parts in her knowing. Social
interaction broadens the single learner’s way of looking at old ‘facts’ and seeing if they
belong in the ‘protective belt’ or ‘hard core’. Individual learning and development is as
much an individual as a social phenomenon. The combination of these two areas is
essential: the epistemological content is filtered through the existential dimension, and
for this reason the socially accepted becomes personal.
The conclusion is that in order to be a good drama teacher in process drama you should
fulfil certain expectations. The teacher is able to work as an epistemological authority,
which means that he should be generally well informed and in this case specially
informed about the process drama methodology (the terminology, strategies etc.) It also
means that you should be a balanced person with high moral qualities, because in
drama work some very sensitive things may come up and you have the total
responsibility to handle them in a way that does not do any harm to the participants. So
good education for the job is needed. The quality of teacher’s personal receptivity is
also very important and so is the understanding, that we all are equals in the learning
situation. The non-authority attitude is central. Our common enterprise has a
humanistic flavour. The teacher should also understand the temporal dimension of
drama work. People need time for personal understanding of deep universal things, and
also the strategies become more and more rewarding when they are repeated in the
processes. The aesthetic understanding concerning the interplay between content and
form is also needed. - In this research teacher students were worried of the possible
negative effects, which could follow when a child is given a negative role. Of course
this was a positive feature.
52
References
Braanaas, N. (1988/2008). Dramapedagogisk historie og teori. Trondheim: Tapir.
Bolton, G. (1979). Towards a Theory of Drama in Education. London: Longman.
Bolton, G. (1992). New Perspectives on Classroom Drama. Herts: Simon & Schuster.
Bowell, P. & Heap, B. (2001). Planning Process Drama. London: David Fulton
Publishers.
Eklund-Myrskog, G. (1996). Students’ ideas of learning. Conceptions, approaches, and
outcomes in different educational contexts. Åbo: Åbo Akademis förlag. (Diss.)
Heathcote, D. (1996). A vision possible. The Commission Model of Teaching. The
Journal of National Drama, Vol. 11, No.1. 16-24.
Hesten, S. (1994). The Construction of an Archive and the Presentation of
Philosophical, Epistemological and
Methodological Issues relating to Dorothy
Heathcote’s Drama in Education Approach. Lancaster University: Department of
Theatre Studies.
Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as a source of learning and
development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Laakso, E. (2004). Draamakokemusten ääressä. [Encountering drama experiences. The
learning potential of process drama in the light of student teachers experiences.] (Title
translated from Finnish) Jyväskylä: Jyväskylän yliopisto. Jyväskylä Studies in
Education, Psychology and Social Research 238. (Diss.)
Lonka, K. (1997). Explorations of constructive processes in student learning. Helsinki:
Department of Psychology. University of Helsinki.
Malinen, A. (2000). Towards the Essence of Adult Experiential Learning. Jyväskylä:
SoPhi. (Diss.)
Neelands, J. (1991/2000). Structuring Drama Work. (ed. T.Goode) Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
O’Neill, C. (1995). Drama Worlds. - A Framework for Process Drama. Portsmouth:
Heinemann.
Perttula, J. (1995). Kokemus psykologisena tutkimuskohteena [Experience as an object
of psychological research]. Tampere: SUFI.
Sæbo, A. (1998). Drama - et kunstfag. Otta: Tano Aschehoug.
Wagner, B. J. (1999. Revised edition) Dorothy Heathcote. Drama as a learning
medium. Portland: Calendar Island Publishers. (First published in 1976).
Østern, A-L. (1994).
“Sol, sol! - jag vill vara solen!” Kontextbyggande och
perspektivbyten i barns berättande och drama. Rapporter från Pedagogiska fakulteten
vid Åbo Akademi nr 9. Vasa: Åbo Akademi.
53
5. TIE - In Winds and Calm – an attempt at reframing
‘framing’
Kari Mjaaland Heggstad
Abstract
The meteorological influence on people from the Nordic countries is strong. We live with
changing weather and with changing seasons. It affects us. The headline also provides
images of TIE. The winds – or even storms would be Boreale TIE in struggle for
existence and acceptance. Or picture the Nordic TIE worker in a wild Nordic landscape
– with weather changing faster than she can open her rucksack to pull out her extra
equipment. She is in the storm before she knows it - a strong sensation; disturbing and
wonderful at the same time (like a good TIE programme). But after winds there is calm –
a more peaceful and reflective situation, a contrast – and a necessity for survival.
However, if the calm becomes constant – both the TIE-worker and her TIE will “die”.
The article is divided into four sections: 1. Some cairns: I will start by sharing some of
my TIE experiences and important influences in the field. 2. Map and terrain: The
second section is centred around language and concepts with a focus on ‘framing’. 3.
The Eye of the Storm: This is the title of the TIE programme which is the empiric
material of my TIE research project. I describe the TIE programme and exemplify the
analysis in order to reframe ‘framing’. 4. Moving to the Boreale topology: By the end
there is a summing up of TIE in the Nordic landscape and ideas for possible cooperation
for Boreale TIE.
1. Some cairns
In my preparations I have tried to recollect my own experiences in TIE. The very first
encounter was when I was a drama student at Bergen School of Education (now Bergen
University College) 1973-1974. On our ten days excursion to Britain, we also visited
Cockpit Theatre in London and observed what I now would identify as a TIE
programme. I don’t recall the great enthusiasm, perhaps it was a poor programme? We,
the Norwegian drama students, knew nothing about TIE at that time. This was before the
publication of the very first book on TIE (O’Toole 1976).
My next TIE experience was in Bergen in 1986. It was my last year as teacher for
school-children. Tippetueteatret visited my class of 12-13 year olds. The company
spent a full day – five hours - in our classroom doing a TIE programme. The name of
the programme was Dommernes dag (The Judges’ Day) and this was as far as I know the
very first professional TIE production in Norway (Tippetueteatret 1987: 11-13). Late
Torunn Kjølner (1953-2008) was contacted by the company – and together they
devised a TIE programme, which Kjølner directed. This company used to produce
children’s theatre – so TIE was a new challenge for the three actors, who now also
needed educational competence. The TIE programme dealt with the life of an American
55
soldier, Eddie Slovik, who deserted from the US army in France during World War II.1
The TIE programme introduced the children to views on the importance of defending
your ideas and your country – and on working for peace. They met different characters
representing diverging views and were gradually framed into members of an
organization. My students became totally involved in the life of the halfcriminal Eddie
from a poor immigrant background in Detroit, who finally got a proper job and a wife –
just to be sent off to France as a soldier.
From that day - when Tippetueteatret was working with my students in our classroom - I
was hooked on the genre we call TIE. I saw the power – and beauty of theatre and
education amalgamated into a new form, providing the students with another kind of
experience than what the drama-teacher was able to provide alone.
My main inspiration – and most of my TIE knowledge is influenced by British TIEpractice through companies like Belgrade TIE (1965-1994) from Coventry, The Dukes
TIE (1975-1995) from Lancaster and Big Brum TIE from Birmingham (established in
1982 and the only one of the three companies that still exists). The organisation called
SCYPT – primarily through their journal, has in itself been an important theoretically
source. 2 SCYPT has been a progressive, child-centred organisation. From my experience
the very best examples of TIE – and the most qualified actor teachers come from this
organisation.
In 1996 I was invited to take part in the first international TIE conference at Bradford
University run by SCYPT. 80 participants from many parts of the world worked together
in a four-day workshop, run by a group of very skilled TIE workers. The workshop gave
an example of how a company can develop material for a TIE programme. The pre-text
was a short story by the young Vietnamese writer, Lee Quy Duong. The work on the
story became a disturbing and at times very moving piece of improvised material.
At this time many of the TIE companies in Britain had to close down because of lack of
funding, and SCYPT created their own Theatre Co-operative, STC. This sub
organisation gave unemployed TIE workers a possibility to create their own projects.
One night at the conference we saw a STC production.
I sat down in the dark black-box of the University. Dim light. A man appears hauling a
small truck with a cage on it. The man wears heavy and dirty army-like clothes, has
gloves with half fingers and a cap that covers most of his face. He is smoking intensively
while hauling the truck. In the cage there is only a pile of rugs in one corner. The image
is striking. The man stops, unlocks the cage - the rugs in the corner moves. My heart
beats. A girl crawls out from under the rugs and comes out of the cage. She has a shaggy
rope around her neck and is dressed in rags and is filthy. While the man starts eating, she
moves a bit away from the cage (as far as the rope lets her) and urinates – and then back
into the cage. The play is called Bone-Cage and is written by late Geoff Gillham (1946 –
2001). He calls it a play for children – and adults. A third character arrives when the man
is sleeping, a street child, a girl in filthy clothes. The street child offers the caged girl her
1
More than 21.000 American soldiers were given sentences for desertion during World War II,
including 49 death sentences. Privat Slovik’s death sentence was the only one that was carried out.
Slovik’s fate has been transformed into litterature and films for instance: The Execution of Private
Slovik by William Bradford Huie from 1954, which also became a tv-production in 1974. http://
www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1987/6/1987_6_97.shtml (read 2009-06-22)
2 SCYPT - Standing Conference for Young People’s Theatre (1975-2004). This became an
important TIE organisation with a leftist profile and ideology. SCYPT Journal was first published
in 1975. The last volume was published in 1997.
56
freedom by stealing the key and unlocking the cage. The girl doesn’t have the courage to
leave the cage and start a new life. The play is a strong metaphor on child abuse - in a
rough aesthetic form. I have probably never been so upset and moved by a play for
children before. The TIE programme was made for 8-10 year olds. The STC production
was based on actor-in-role work with an actor teacher facilitating the interaction between
the roles and the kids exploring the play.
The last cairn I will mention her are the ongoing discussions and exchanges between the
TIE studies at Oslo University College and Bergen University College, mainly through
experiencing and evaluating students’ TIE productions.3
In reflecting back on TIE experiences a resource of examples (good or bad) will come to
the surface – examples of themes, levels of interaction, variety of structures, frame
distances and ways of facilitating programmes, whether from student productions or
professional ones. The systematic recollection of what and how provides material for
analysis and development.
2. Map and Terrain
Concepts are markers on the map and maps are tools to help understanding the terrain.
We must ensure that the map adheres to the lay of the land. To read maps and terrains are
crucial competencies. Through language we understand. In the Drama Boreale
Conferences many of us did not have the opportunity to speak our mother tongue. This is
of course a restriction on each one of us. We need to express ourselves in a second or
even a third language. When speaking a second language like English, most of us will
feel a lack of vocabulary, the search for the right word, loosing out because of rapid
discussions, probably most of us feel handicapped, language wise.
Language is power. The drama and TIE field is “run” by native English speaking
colleagues, mainly from the strong milieus in Britain and Australia. If we wish to take
part in the drama/theatre discourses we need to master the English language on a certain
level.
But language is power also in another way. Since we are so much influenced by the
traditions in the English speaking countries, we also become dependent on the English
concepts. We struggle to find the right translation of concepts – to find the word that
covers the meaning. Sometimes we manage, sometimes we don’t. One classical example
is ‘Theatre-in-Education’ which in the Scandinavian languages for some strange reason
became ‘Teater-i-undervisningen’. Theatre-in-Teaching does not cover the meaning of
Theatre-in-Education, but we have long since accepted the mal-translation. One thing is
the name; another is the content we fill the concept with. Are there some implicit,
unwritten rules, some standards that need to be there to identify a project within the TIE
genre?
There are concepts that we have adopted as part of our TIE vocabulary without
managing to translate for instance ‘protection’, ‘empowerment’ or ‘empowering’,
‘facilitator’ and ‘devising’. I am concerned with the precision of language in our field.
To be clear in our practise and academic work, we need a consciousness on central
concepts.
3
Being external sensors for each other’s studies have provided important information both ways
and have also influenced the development of the TIE studies – both on a practical and theoretical
level.
57
In TIE (and drama processes) there is a tradition of giving the students a collective
fiction role from where they can see and experience the situations. This has been called
framing.
The framing concept was introduced by Dorothy Heathcote in a lecture in 1980
(unpublished) and was later elaborated in the article “Signs (and Portents?)” from 1982
and in a later version from 1984. 4 Heathcote introduces nine different frame distances;
participant, guide, agent, authority, recorder, press, researcher, critic and artist. 5 Her
frame concept has been explained like this: “A frame is the perspective from which
people (participants) are coming to enter the event. Frame provides: a) meaning for the
participants, b) dramatic tension” (Cooper et. al. 2000: 15).
I go back to the translation problem for a moment. When translated to Norwegian frame
becomes ramme and framing - innramming. Both these words are static concepts in my
view. The translation does not match the meaning in drama/TIE. The Norwegian terms
activates questions like: What is the frame framing; the theatre event or the students in
role – or both? What is the frame, what is inside the frame, - and even outside? The
metaphor has a profound position in our field when it at the same time seems unclear.
Etymologically the roots are found both in old Anglo-Saxon language and in Norse. The
meaning has been changing and with parallel meanings through the centuries. Since
’ramme’ and ’innramming’ in modern Norwegian are static concepts, I have been
searching for more active and flexible valour – where there is temporality imbedded. In
my Norwegian writing I have ended up using ’rammesetting’ inspired by the Danish
literature-researcher Morten Kynderup (Heggstad 2008: 91). I also use ’rammeendring’
which goes in direction of dynamics and changing structures. I am unsure if there is a
similar static understanding in the English use of the concept or not.
When Heathcote introduces framing in 1980, she was most likely inspired by the social
anthropologist Erving Goffman’s (1922–1982) theories. 6 Goffman uses the term framing
when he studies the social role-play that goes on when people meet and communicates
with each other. When framing is used in ordinary social interactions, it becomes
necessary, according to Goffman, to use theatre concepts to describe that part of the
communication that deals with giving off expressions (Goffman 1959:4). He uses a
spectrum of theatre terms like role, performance, scene, audience, stage arrangement,
set, dramatisation, dramaturgy and dramaturgical skills and strategies. He also talks
about teams playing against each other, primary framing, key and keying, fabrication
strategies, face to face behaviour etc. In my research I have chosen to go back to this,
4The
last publication of this article that I have come across is in the booklet People in Movement
from 2000 (Cooper et.al.). Heathcote’s article is very often referred to in drama literature, for
instance in Neelands (1984), O’Neill (1995), Bolton (1998) and Ackroyd (2004) and belongs to (in
my opinion) the canon of drama and theatre in education.
5 In his PhD dissertation, Distancing at Close Range Stig A. Eriksson presents Heathcote’s frame
distance and three adaptations of her nine frames (Eriksson 2009: 141-152).
6 In two articles “From the particular to the universal” (Heathcote 1984a: 104-108) and “Drama as
context for talking and writing” (Heathcote 1984b: 141) she refers directly to Goffman’s Frame
Analysis Chapter 5: The Theatrical Frame. The material in first article is from 1978. Here she
draws a figure on Goffman’s division into six types of situations, which in some ways resonate
with her own nine frame distances. Gavin Bolton states that Heathcote draws on Goffman when
she explains her understanding of framing (Bolton 1998:193). O’Toole says that the drama
educational use of framing can be tracked back to play theories for instance Bateson’s play-frame,
where a number of signals tells that the activity is play (O’Toole 1992:109). Goffman refers to
Batson: “[…] it is in Bateson’s paper that the term “frame” was proposed in roughly the sense in
which I want to employ it”. (Goffman 1986: 7)
58
shall we say ‘starting point’, when I examine framing in a broad sense. This way
Goffman can help generalising framing in TIE.
3. The Eye of the Storm
The empiric materials are five video observations of The Eye of the Storm by Big Brum,
one of the British companies mentioned above. 7 The TIE programme is constructed
around William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest with a target group of 10-11 year olds. I
only use one of the observations for this analysis. The whole TIE-programme has four
parts:
Introduction: The team builds contact with the students, introducing Prospero, "the
right Duke of Milan", and gradually frames the group as Members of the Socratic
Order of Scholars. The facilitator plays a very active part in this first phase.
In Prospero's garden: The group moves to the theatre arena. Prospero tells the story
of his life to the scholars who are willing to help him with his problems. Episodes are
acted out by the three actor teachers. From time to time the facilitator leaves her roles
and asks the scholars questions.
The island: After a break the storytelling continues about Prospero’s and his daughter
Miranda’s life at the island. We are in Shakespeare's universe. Caliban "a savage and
deformed slave" comes into focus. A next shipwreck takes place with Prospero’s
brother, Antonio, King Alonso of Naples and his son Ferdinand on board. Prospero
takes revenge – then forgives. They all leave the island, there is peace between the
cities and the young ones can marry. Caliban is left on the island, free - but still
slaving.
The Socratic Order of Scholars confronting Prospero: At the start the pupils were
presented with Prospero's problems with his city and its social structure. Now
Prospero picks up on these problems. The scholars confront him with his inhuman
treatment of Caliban. Advises are given and scenes that can throw light upon the
problem or actions are re-enacted. This part (which can last for quite a while)
concludes the TIE programme.
There is interaction between students and company in all four parts – either in fiction or
outside fiction. Framing, in Goffman’s conception and change of framing also happens
in all the four parts.
The introductory section of the TIE programme was the main area of examination. I
focus on the TIE company members. In the long introductory section (which lasts for
almost an hour) I have scrutinized the structure and the actor teachers' mediation and
communication with the students/participants. Through the example I will share
Goffman’s concept of ‘framing’, and describe parts of the TIE event through his optics.
With a rhetorical starting point, the generalizing of the framing term will involve an
examination of a versatile topos in this restricted area of TIE. A spatial way of thinking
has uncovered different topoi within the greater framing topos – where the tradition's
topos in TIE (the Heathcotian one) only represents one part of the variety.
The introductory section of The Eye of the Storm consists, the way I see it, of six
framings. The first one is when the students and the TIE Company see each other for the
first time. This is a framing that seem to be a grey zone that we perhaps pay too little
7
This research is part of the lager Project Arts Didactics (Kunstfagdidaktikkprosjektet) at Bergen
University College (2004-2008) conducted by professor Aslaug Nyrnes.
59
attention to. The communication and sensitivity in this phase is important for work that
follows. In the next five phases the students go from exploring a theatrical situation to
themselves being participants in the fiction. I identify the framings by title in the
following way:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
At first sight – the very first meeting between the company and the students in
the classroom. (The rest of the programme takes place in the school
lunchroom).
Cross-linking – two frames cross when a tableau of Prospero is closely
examined by the students.8
Listening – when sounds from Milan's marketplace enter Prospero's room.
Meta discussion – when rules for discourse are discussed.
Ritual – the drama tradition's framing – when transfer of a role via a medallion
finds place.
Meeting in fiction – when the scholars are having their scholarly discussion
about Milan's hierarchical structure – before they get to hear Prospero tell about
his life – and they shall be his advisors.
In the analysis I have examined what is at play in the various frames, how the various
participants appear, and how they master their position and their means of expression in
the framing. It is also important to read how the actor teacher's challenges become
apparent in the framings.
The topology of the framing of the TIE programme is thus studied on the basis of
Goffman's studies of social contexts. The appearance of fiction in the framings varies
over the course of the programme and fluctuates between being central, of indirect
importance, more peripheral or completely absent.
I will use the 4th framing - Meta discussion as an example. In this framing the fiction
element is not physically present, but present as a subject for discussion. Meta discussion
revolves primarily about giving the students information about a fictional order
consisting of scholars that Prospero would like to get advice from. Next follows a
discussion about some given rules, which the facilitator presents. The facilitator is the
one of the three actor teachers that chooses to take on the function as adapter, organizer,
narrator or intermediary between fiction and nonfiction. The facilitator pulls out a large,
patina coloured paper scroll with a ribbon around it – rolls it out and presents the rules.
The facilitator takes her time and the six rules are 1.A good scholar is a good listener to
interpreted and discussed thoroughly – one after the others
other. She accepts and enlarges the students’ 2.A good scholar waits for his turn to
contributions through repetitions. The facilitator's speak
particular style is highlighted and underscored 3.A good scholar thinks before he speaks
through varying the use of voice and intonation. She 4.A good scholar is not quick to
repeats shortly after the student statements and judge others
continuously asks new questions in response to the 5.A good scholar wishing to speak
student contributions. What is characteristic of her must stand up
style is that she dares to spend time – dares
6.A scholar addresses others in the
debate with “Fellow scholars”
8 I have elaborated the second framing in detail in the article “TIU i retorisk perspektiv – et
analyseeksempel” [“TIE in rhetoric perspective – an example of analysis”] in Rasmussen (ed.)
2007: Drama Boreale 2006.
60
to ponder points of view. She doesn't mind changing between relatively slow tempos,
both verbally and none verbally - and bursts of fast and intense inputs. The facilitator
looks like a teacher, but uses an idiom that is poetic and dynamic, which I have earlier
characterized as a poetic of facilitation.9 Dramaturgical way of thinking is clearly the
basis of the improvisational work. All three actor teachers are involved in the metadiscussion. The sequence is concluded by the students supplying the rules. Three new
rules are suggested and accepted.
In this framing, the students' voices are more apparent than in the earlier framings. The
students' excitement does not seem to be hindered by the premises of the discussion
being some previously set rules. It is the rules and the students that play the main part in
this framing. The actor teachers have turned themselves into a supportive audience. They
use a kind of fabrication strategy in that the premise is given, but shall be argued - and
that the students' contributions regardless are accepted and ceremonialized. Fabrication
involves, according to Goffman (1986: 156-200) that one or more of the participants are
intending to control what is going on in such a matter that others get the wrong
impression of what is going on. “The rim of the frame is a construction, but only the
fabricators so see it,” he says (Goffman 1986: 84). In this example what Goffman would
call benign fabrication is taking place. This is completely in line with the usual rules of
the game when working with drama processes; acceptance as strategy to excite the
students, trigger reflections, give the student self-confidence in relation to the material
and create interest for what may come.
So the company is well prepared for the framing. The design of the rules and of the
actual prop - the scroll of rules - is carefully planned and is by itself a premise for the
conversation that is about to take place here. It is not set up for an evaluation where
certain rules can be discarded. The situation is in that regard closed. The actor teachers
find themselves in a rhetorical landscape where they are in danger of ‘persuading’ rather than ‘convincing’. The meta-discussion still seems to be meaningful to the
students. What is being interpreted and commented on is closer to the students' daily life
than the material in the preceding framings. The students seem to have a more direct
access to the material. The company's attentiveness and attention toward input is
considerable. They try to get as many as possible involved in the discussion. Although
the rules cannot be changed, they can be made important through the way the students'
interpretations and comments are heard and treated. Toward the end an opening is made
for adding rules – here the actor teachers get additional insight into the students' thought
world.
To lead such a class conversation is challenging. The facilitator uses a querying, Socratic
form and invites to input in the same way as in the cross-linking. When the verbal
activity now is greater, the challenge is different. How do you lead a conversation when
many want to speak? Without aiming for this, the students raise their hands. The origin
for the topos of raising the hand is difficult to track, but the observation of this TIE
programme has actualized the topos. ”The waiters” remain seated with their hand raised
and present a view when it finally is their turn. To hold on to one's own thoughts, while
the collective conversation flows on is challenging; remember, raising the hand high,
making sure one is seen, listening to others - can be difficult combinations. Leading such
conversation situations thus is difficult and challenging. The topology of raising hands
may seem functional in some situations and non functional in others.
9
I am here referring to the paper; ”The Poetics of Facilitation” which I presented at IDEA 2004 in
Ottawa, Canada.
61
Generalizing:
I have attempted to view the introductory section from outside, from my own standpoint.
With Goffman as optics, I have read the introductory section as six different framings,
where particular moves and tricks become apparent in various ways. In a Norwegian
article called “Prospero’s nyve og den socratiske orden” (Heggstad 2008: 89-115) I
describe all the six parts of the Introduction – and I summarized this by saying
something about the voices, the words, the things, the roles and the interactions of the
material.
I will here comment on two of these areas; the things and the interactions. First the
things: From the second to sixth framing, one particular prop or form of expression is
focused on: a chequered, damaged ball (a symbol of a society in decay); a radio play
(sounds that duke Prospero hears from the Milan market place); a scroll of debate rules
that The Socratic Order of Scholars shall follow; the medallions that show the scholars'
Scholarship, and finally a map with a pyramid that shows Milan's hierarchical societal
structure. The chosen thing for each framing plays an important role for what happens
verbally and non-verbally.
The introduction of the things finds plays in different ways. The ball and map is a part of
the actual sceneography in the introductory section and is eventually examined closely.
The radio play fills the room with impressions. The scroll is unrolled and uncovers the
rules. The medallion is offered as a gift or property. The designs of the things are made
with the utmost care. The radio play, the scroll of rules and the map have clear narrative
connotations, which immediately communicate concrete content. The symbolism of the
medallion is clear and communicates community and a kind of social rank.
One of the things, the chequered, damaged ball is in a more unspoken
relationship to the context. It doesn't immediately have a narrative
structure, the way the other things do. The ball first takes on meaning
through Prospero's relationship to it. This is called cathexis in TIE
terminology; «[…] a meaning becomes attached to the object by the ’user’
greater than the object’s original use» (Cooper 2005: 61). The ball is not a
ball in the usual sense, but a ball shape of special meaning to the owner.
The black and white boxes on the surface point to the game of chess, with
its hierarchical order and its war strategy.
Figure 1. Meaning becomes attached to the object.
(Parenthetically it can be mentioned that in Shakespeare's text act 5, scene 1 is a short
chess scene). That squares have loosened from the surface of the ball points to
dissolution. The ball as cathexis thereby describes Prospero's frown. Prospero's problems
are hidden in the dissolved ball.
In summary about the things, you could say that the programme's challenges are potent
in the things in the introductory section's different framings.
When it comes to the interactions I have observed a development from weaker to
stronger interaction between the company and the students. Every framing involves
62
interaction and represent meetings between the two main groups (students and company)
that change between being – in Goffman’s sense – audience and actors to each other. The
primary framing is activated particularly in the first framing, while the students'
decoding (Goffman's keying) is challenged in situations of framing changes and with
particular changes in situations.
Performance face to face (another Goffman term) between an actor teacher and a student
is a recurring trait. The facilitator changes continuously between addressing the group
and the individual. In the meetings face to face it looks like to contribute to uphold or
give the student a face is important. During the transfer ritual the stage has been set for
solid acting face to face. This is the one situation where individual meetings are
systemized. Seen from the actor teacher (which is my main perspective) he contributes
through gaze, pose and words to give the student in role respect and honour.
Through this examination - small details have become significant in the attempt to
generalize the framing term. The six framings have also brought to fore a wonder around
the fiction issue in TIE. The relationship between fiction and non-fiction appear in
various ways in the framing. The one form does not appear as more important than the
other, but rather show that what to exist inside or outside the fiction frame provide
different types of challenges. The spaces between these two positions also seem to be an
important place for exploration. The TIE programme places many demands on the actor
teacher. In The Eye of the Storm one has chosen a demanding structure of adaptation
sections and play sections combined into a varied pattern of framings. The six first
framings of the program makes it obvious that each framing demands thorough artistic
and didactic considerations and preparations before it can function as an arena for
interaction between the student participants and the actor teachers.
I return to Heathcote's framing term where she argues for the significance of exciting the
students through a special relationship to the action. She says:
I take it as a general rule for myself that people have most power to become involved
at a caring and urgently involved level if they are placed in a quite specific
relationship with the action, because this brings with it inevitably the responsibility,
and, more particularly, the viewpoint which gets them into an affective involvement
(Heathcote 1982: 27).
The role of scholar gives influence through for instance critical analysis of the situation,
to advise Prospero and possibly put demands on him. The facilitator repeatedly gives the
admonition moment to make the students stop and reflect over what happened. The
students' interpretations in the long introductory section provide material for experiencing
and exploring the rest of the TIE programme and to be able to go into interaction with
Prospero and the other characters.
The TIE programme, The Eye of the Storm, starts where The Tempest ends with
Prospero’s Monologue.
4. Moving to the Boreale topology
We move from the particular British example to the Nordic landscape. What does this
topology look like? The five countries are different. 11 years ago I had my first TIE
workshops and lectures for Aabo Academy in Vaasa. Since then I have been back in
Vaasa three - four times working on TIE both for the Academy and for NOVIA (earlier
Yrkeshögskolan i Vasa). I have also had the opportunity to be an advisor for student
productions and two TIE groups here in Finland; Thespis TIE and HOT TIE. The TIE
work at Aabo Academy in Vaasa, along with NOVIA and the Universities in Jÿväskylä
63
and Helsinki are important institutions for the development of the genre through courses
and projects. It has been inspiring to follow the development in Finland, not only
through productions but also through essays, articles and thesis on TIE both in Finish
and Swedish.
In Iceland the genre is not yet very widespread, but there is an interest both for
productions and research, which should be supported.
In Sweden, where children’s theatre has been very strong, TIE has not been as well
known. For the time being TIE is especially growing in the Umeå district, both through
the work at Umeå University with introductions, student projects and thesis - and at the
Umea Art Centre [Kulturcentrum för barn och unga]. 10
Denmark, which also has had a very strong children’s theatre, was the first Nordic
country to present a TIE programme as early as in 1976 with a production by Rimfaxe
(Illsaas and Kjølner 1993: 195). There are interesting examples of productions and
debates about the genre in the 1980s and 1990s. In Denmark there seems to be a tradition
of project-based productions. The Theatre Centers both in Aarhus and Aalborg have
earlier produced what can be defined as TIE programmes based on historic events – and
some of the Universities and Seminars have, as far as I understand, initiated and
supported TIE work.
The situation in Norway is similar – but differs in one area. Both the University College
in Oslo and in Bergen offer modules in TIE for drama students in their second year
study. The University College in Volda gives a module on TIE for first year drama
students. These programmes of course stimulate further work on TIE. Enthusiastic
groups polish and refine their exam-production and tour in schools – and might develop
companies that can survive more than one production. But we have no established TIE
company running a fulltime activity for the time being. The companies that exist have no
fixed funding, so they get together if there is funding for a specific project.
This mapping of TIE is far from complete. In my opinion both cooperation across the
countries and research is needed. In 2000 Bergen University College initiated a
cooperation between the five Nordic countries through the Nordic conference “TIE in
Focus”. The conference presented eight TIE programmes and had about 110
participants. 11 However, there has been no follow up of this start.
As to research both Bergen University College and Umeå Art Centre are at the present
partners in an EU research programme called DICE (Drama Informs Lisbon Key
Competences). The research also deals with TIE. 12 countries and research teams are
involved. The project is coordinated from Budapest by Káva TIE Company together with
researchers from Hungarian Academy of Sciences; Institute of Psychology. This research
is a longitudinal cross-cultural research, mainly based on quantitative methods, but has
also a qualitative angle. 12
10 In a thesis on TIE from Umeå University (Lundström and Andersson) the similarities between
visiting theatre and TIE is discussed. Visiting theatres seem to be quite common in Sweden – and
for some groups the format and interaction resembles the work within the TIE genre.
11 The eight programmes were presented by: Thespis TIU (Finland), Stop Theatre (Iceland), Teater
TR3 (Sweden), Aarhus Dramasentrum (Denmark) and Eventus TIU, Voba-teatret,
Kateterkompaniet and Vestlandske Teatersenter (Norway).
12 The 12 countries involved are Czech Republic, England, Gaza strip, Hungary, Norway,
Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Sweden. End of project period is
October 2010.
64
Theatre in Education (TIE) creates a space for experience between theatre and education,
in the complex and constant process of constructions, performances, negotiations and
participations. At Drama Boreale 2009 the hybrid genre, TIE, has been more visible than
earlier with presentation of more productions. 13A wish for the future is more cooperation
between the five Nordic countries in three areas: creating a space for exchanges between
companies (for instance through conferences), working for more TIE modules at Nordic
universities - and developing a common research project; both in order to map the terrain
thoroughly, but even more important; to develop a better understanding of the TIE genre
in the winds and calm of the Boreale topology.
13 “Friends 4-ever” – a student production from Aabo Academy, “Kan man varo tre och leka” a
TIE programme for 6-7 years olds by Umeå Art Centre, “Taivaltajat” TIE-esitys ja työpaja:
Paradise?
65
References
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Cooper, C. (2005). “Edward Bond and the Big Brum Plays”. I Davis, David (ed.):
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Cooper, C., Gillham G. & Yeoman I.( Ed) (2000). People in Movement. A handbook of
Materials on Theatre-in-education Methodology to accompany the course led by SCYPT
at the ICTIE Conference in Amman, Jordan. Rhondda: SCYPT Publication.
Eriksson, S. A. (2009). Distancing at Close Range. Investigating the Significance of
Distancing in Drama Education. PhD dissertation. Vasa, Finland: Aabo Academy
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66
6. Applied theatre & drama - A well-qualified concept?
Ida Krøgholt
Abstract
Through the concepts we use, we can understand and explain the practices of our lives.
This paper will observe and elaborate on some consequences of the increased use of the
concept applied theatre and drama. The concept functions as an umbrella as it invites
the complexity of drama and theatre activities outside the theatre institutions to take
cover. From this point, conceptual umbrellas – hybrids – have a wonderful capacity to
grasp with complexity and to reconcile zones, which we, under other circumstances,
would regard as incompatible. As far as applied theatre and drama is concerned, it
solves a sequence of dilemmas as it manages, hardly without any friction, to connect art
and market, education and business, art and pedagogy and so forth. From this point,
applied theatre and drama as a concept try to grasp the complexity of theatre- and
drama pedagogy, and the article discusses the consequences of this. Conclusively I find
the concept well functioning, as it invites us to throw new light on the link between
theatre and drama. Finally, the article questions how new societal connections can
challenge the applied drama- and theatre researcher, and how the researcher the other
way round can challenge these?
The concept applied theatre and drama has become a key position and a major topic of
interest in research in drama pedagogy during the last decade. Admittedly, my mind is
divided in this matter. On one hand I am very fond of the concept, as it is plausibly
including. On the other hand, the concept irritates with its unlimited openness and its
totalizing attitude. In this article I shall try to elaborate on this dilemma.
We may regard applied theatre and drama as a so called umbrella concept, which has
been increasingly growing not least in Great Britain, in Australia, in US and in Germany,
where more research centres and programmes dedicated to research in applied theatre
and drama have emerged in recent years. What these programmes have in common is a
strong engagement in and relation to society and community and an interest in
application-processes in different contexts in education and community. Furthermore the
term opens towards sub terms as performance management and drama and theatre in
business, which I particularly intend to illuminate.
The pre-fix applied will be of interest here, as it is in the point of innovations in the way
of facilitating drama in different contexts. Though, it is of interest to note, that the ideas
of applied theatre and drama seem to be strengthened in society and within theatre
research but weakened in school, as Tor Helge Allern observed in his paper held at the
Drama Boreale in Vaasa 2009. My point is that the concept could challenge the school
context too, as it expresses a change in drama in education’s connection with society,
which should be taken into general consideration. In addition, I suggest that we use the
surroundings interest for applied theatre and drama as an opportunity to look selfreflectively at tradition. In this question my purpose is to add an element to Helen
Nicholson’s analyze of the term applied theatre/drama which she sees as equal
(Nicholson 2005 p. 4-5), as I intend to ask what distinguishes and at the same time
closely connects theatre AND drama.
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Applied theatre and drama as a common value system
I shall try to discuss what the concept applied theatre and drama describes and performs
and how this is presented. We may presume that the concept aims to guide drama in
education towards
•
•
•
•
New societal tasks, inside and outside educational settings.
Drama activities and learning perspectives applied to a wider range of social
and global issues.
New partnerships: facilitating cross disciplinary teamwork, drama in
organisations, theatre in business, arts management.
New common values.
When a social system shares common terminologies - like for example applied theatre
and drama – the terms we use indicate that we have created a new common value
system. My assumption is, though, that as applied theatre and drama implies different,
and maybe even incompatible societal systems, no single value can catch and represent
the performative encounters covered by applied theatre and drama in total. According to
this dilemma, I presume, we take the opportunity to reflect stronger on the premises for
sharing the term applied theatre and drama.
Drama activities in a constant state of emergence
I have proposed a dilemma, but what are the strengths of the concept then?
The thesis in this article is that the concept applied theatre and drama is an attempt to
stabilize drama and theatre practices in a society in a constant state of emergence. This
includes that the concept seeks to find an equivalent to the dilemmas proposed and to the
following paradox: That in current societies there exist an increasing interdependence
between social systems and simultaneous a growing difference. For instance between
•
•
•
•
art and economy
politics and mass media
private and public
etc.
The paradox lined up here is related to the concept of The Hypercomplex Society.
Hypercomplexity is the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann’s concept, which the
Danish media researcher, Lars Qvortrup, elaborates on in his book, The Hypercomplex
Society (Qvortrup 20003).
Qvortrup provides a compelling perspective on the social, the cultural and economic
shifts taking place in early 21st century. He advocates for a social theory, that describes
current trends in social organization, and argues that ”complexity” is the guiding concept
that differentiates the current and the emerging society – one that is managed by the
ability to manage complexity (Qvortrup 2003 p. 26-30).
My suggestion is now that we distinguish applied theatre and drama as an innovation in
drama pedagogy, which proves to rethink drama pedagogy in generalised terms. As
follows, the intention is apparently to manage the complexity of society, as various
societal systems in the wide perspective of applied theatre and drama are viewed as
potential spaces for drama activity. Thus, according to Luhmann’s social constructivism,
complexity is here managed by complexity. In other words, we can observe the growing
interest for new partners and market shares outside the drama educational system as a
way of dealing with the societal complexity - and equally to contend with the
marginalization of drama pedagogy.
To sum up, the point taken here is that the phenomenon applied theatre & drama not
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basically is different from drama in education. Rather I will claim that applied theatre
and drama is
•
a name for a functional shift in dramapedagogy’s connection with society.
In accordance with this, the crucial distinction of the concept is that it stresses the
•
•
Importance of adaptability.
Constantly exchange in partnerships – changeability – between increased different
systems.
The societal change offers an opportunity to shed new light on traditional ways of
explaining different societal area, as the concept applied theatre and drama
demonstrates.
Examples of approaches to applied theatre and drama research
I would now like to epitomize the above points with a few examples.
In recent years, applied theatre and drama has been celebrated, mapped and put in
perspective in three books that I find it worth mentioning: Philip Taylor. Applied
Theatre. Creating Transformative Encounters in Community (2003); Helen Nicholson.
Applied Drama. The Gift of Theatre (2005) and Tim Prentki and Sheila Preston (Eds.).
Applied Theatre reader (2008). The authors all make great effort to show the extended
empirical drama spaces, and I shall here mention some of the empirical areas that attract
their attention:
Theatre in nontheatrical settings (community centres, parks and streets)
Prison and rehabilitation venues
Therapy and healthcare sites
Housing projects
Support service settings
(Taylor 2003)
Theatre of the political left
Drama and theatre in education
Community theatre
Interventionist approaches to theatre-making and education
Performance management
(Nicholson 2005)
Educational settings
Prison theatre
Community performance
Theatre in conflict resolution and reconsolidation
Interventionist theatre
Theatre for development
(Prentki and Preston 2009)
According to Taylor, Nicholson and Prentki and Preston’s mapping, applied theatre and
drama seem to express a pluralistic attitude towards drama practice, as well as it takes
the pluralistic society into consideration. And as we see, very many expectations to the
area are to be fulfilled. In this light, it could be tempting to ask what is not represented –
and why? Though the mapping give you a convincing and forceful illustration of the
usefulness of drama work, the pluralistic landscape leaves you with a fairly confused
picture of the field. Helen Nicholson regards applied drama as a gift, being negotiated
between the giver and the receiver, which seem to be a very interesting and radically
reflected contribution to the issue. But beside Nicholson’s involvement, considerations
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on the inter-actional part with new partners in the global perspective of applied theatre
and drama appear to be quite limited.
Paradoxes and blind spots
My conclusion so far is that it seems as if the concept applied theatre & drama in the
above mentioned examples on one hand attempts not to discriminate against a plurality
of perspectives (celebrate multiple drama methods, multiple ways of living etc.), but on
the other hand tend to concentrate efforts towards one master concept, under which
various categories of theatre and drama can be collected. This seems to me as a paradox,
and the question is if the search for a concept that can surround drama practices in total
will undermine the indiscriminating intentions?
In addition, there might be a so called blind spot in the celebration of applied theatre and
drama, as theatre and drama practitioners run a risk of twisting own resources in favour
of the partners interest and need, when drama practice is applied to new market shares
and partnerships. What I have in mind here is the conflicting social value systems
between for instance art and economy or art and politics. Will applied theatre and drama
become a lap dog kept in tight rein?
Not necessarily, but it all depends on how you connect to the surroundings and the new
market shares, I presume. For that reason, the issue is not if theatre and drama should
apply to a wide range of social systems - but how.
How do we mark out success criteria?
The enquiry that I aim at here is how research in drama pedagogy could contribute to the
development of drama-professional self-reflection, as it is a well-known fact that the
area is under pressure from the external world. This makes it tempting to focus strongly
on external perspectives, that is to say what drama can contribute in nearly any given
context. According to this, I presume - with support in Helen Nicholson (Nicholson
2005) - that we see applied theatre and drama practice as performative encounters. This
stresses the importance of a new awareness of how we construct, facilitate and observe
the phenomenal encounters with an assortment of settings (see illustration 1). And it also
makes it worth re-considering the effects at work. When we estimate the effects of
applied theatre and drama, what could be more tempting than to draw nearer to success
criteria that could fit into the different spaces that applied theatre and drama invite to
share with. To exemplify, in performance management it will be tempting to observe the
innovativeness, winner strategies and ‘fair processes’ caused by drama strategies and
reflection, in prison theatre the improvement of the participants will very likely be in
focus, in drama-therapy healthcare will be the issue, in educational settings the
participants learning and in conflicted social area the empowerment of the participants is
at the agenda. This sort of expectations to applied theatre and drama activity seem to be
bordering on the above mentioned examples of applied theatre and drama theory. Of
course the drama researcher, as well as the drama facilitator needs to have a basic
knowledge of different contexts and spaces, where encounters are performed. But
simultaneously we must ask how we elucidate the strangeness and the otherness of
theatre and drama, namely the aesthetic perspective, if our partners are interested only in
an output, they can identify?
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What can Theatre AND Drama add to society?
In this matter, I assume we take our ‘own’ perspective into consideration and stick very
closely to observations of our own resources. To be precise to training developed in the
art form theatre and to the reflective methods developed in drama pedagogy. The point
here is that the term applied theatre and drama offer us two parallel dimensions, namely
theatre and drama. I suggest that the two dimensions should be managed equally, when
theatre and drama is applied to society. In many cases practitioners in fact do manage
both, but we may not be clearly aware of when, we work with the theatre form and
when, we work with drama as a form. Though, as many drama practitioners will
probably agree, exercises in improvisation typically play a central part in drama practice.
Accordingly, the improvisation-part is exactly a form that belongs to the theatrical
dimension in such processes, I presume. In theatre practice actors are trained in creative
dealings with the world through improvisational work, and through their training they
obtain a creative ability to transform the chaotic parts of improvisation into form.
Similarly, participants in applied theatre might obtain some creative qualities to their life
practice through genuinely training of improvisation. As a matter of fact, it is quite
problematic to speak of improvisation without including training and form, as training of
improvisational competence will help participants to work the chaos elements into interactional forms with co-participants. Subsequently, you apply theatre as a dimension as
you facilitate improvisational interactions in applied theatre and drama. Drama on the
other hand, offers a rather different perspective to form, namely exquisite methods to
expose and reflect on the improvised elements. To be exact, the reflective forms where
the improvisational components are observed, discussed and examined, contrast to the
form of improvisation and belong to the dimension of drama14 . I take for granted that the
parallels between these two different dimensions create the aesthetic doubling, which
explain and grasp the jump between the improvisational flow and the reflective
adaptations.
Figure 1. Aesthetic doubling hits the nail on the head regarding drama in societal systems.
14
Thanks to my colleague Niels Lehmann for sharing his thoughts in this matter.
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So, the aesthetic doubling, in my view, is a concept that hit the nail on the head as far as
focusing what drama can apply to numerous societal systems. I hope that the illustration
above will underline this point (Figure 1).
The challenge of partnerships
Now, is the concept applied theatre and drama well qualified for research and thinking?
Yes, if you imply that you as a researcher are observing your own observations – and are
aware of the different angles and media, you are observing from. Conclusively, I
furthermore should like to underline, that in my perspective, we should happily take the
plunge and apply the dimensions of both theatre and drama to society, in educational
settings as tradition prescribes as well as in new market shares. It seems as if knowledge
of collaborative creative processes is in high demand, and there appears to be potential
partners and clients at the creative market place. But I suggest in addition that we use
this as an occasion to gain stronger theory and knowledge of our own drama-creative
strategies, and to gain equal weight on the theatre and the drama dimensions. In
consequence of this view, we should concentrate less on drama-contributions to the
market, as partners are not to be confused with communities, while purposes and
meanings are comprehended quite differently from various positions in a partnership.
Rather I suggest, we look the other way round and pay attention to partners expectation
to drama processes and observe distantly how drama processes function in the partners
perspective. Here drama researchers get access to observe drama in an external angle with a view to academic self reflection – to shed new light on our own practice.
72
References
Nicholson, H. (2005). Applied Drama. The Gift of Theatre. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Prentki, T. & Preston S. (Eds.) (2009). Applied Theatre Reader. New York: Routledge.
Qvortrup, L. (1998/2003). Det hyperkomplekse samfund. 14 fortællinger om
informationssamfundet. København: Gyldendal.
Taylor, P. (2003). Applied Theatre. Creating Transformative Encounters in Community,
New York: Heinemann, Portsmouth.
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7. Art-based research and drama as a way of knowing
Building a house in no-man’s land
Bjørn Rasmussen
Abstract
The current specific interest in artistic research may be linked to the familiar notion of play and
drama as a way of knowing. The understanding of the epistemological nature of the arts or
symbolic media is crucial to drama education and drama research, but the dichotomies between
art and research, art and education are still heavy obstacles that prevent the recognition of arts
education and -research. We should start questioning the distinctions between knowledge forms in
research and art. One approach may be to question the notion of ‘theory’ and try to rebuild a
bridge that epistemologically links theory and practice, research and arts. On this ‘bridge’,
drama- and arts research may take their property and build new houses of research training and
knowledge.
The notion of ‘art-based’ research covers a broad range of research where arts practices
are focussed, varying from traditional empirical analyses of an artwork to research in the
more radical meaning of art production. The latter tradition of ‘artistic’ research has
recently gained renewed interest, following the way arts training is increasingly situated
and reorganized in higher education and how this fact reopens demands for research and
investigations into the epistemological nature of all art forms: What can be known in the
arts? How can arts making produce knowledge, even research knowledge? In Norway ,
Bergen National Academy of the Arts is responsible for a new doctoral education for
artists, and has launched a new research journal (Sensuous Knowing). In the Nordic
community, Finland seems to be leading, for example by the work done at the Theatre
Academy in Helsinki or Academy of Fine Arts. Mika Hannula e.o. ask ‘why is not the
art work in itself sufficient to count as research? Why do we accept the hegemony of the
word? (Hannula, Suoranta, and Vadén 2005 p. 119). This is a timely question in late
modern media society. However, the same Finnish authors state later in the same
publication: ‘For something to be counted as artistic research, it must include a
linguistic part, that is, a verbal account of what has been done, thought, invented and
developed’(Hannula, Suoranta, and Vadén 2005 p. 165). Both statements read together
reveal a paradox and a present tension between art and research, which internationally,
for example at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, has lead to three
optional doctoral programs: Doctor of Creative Arts Industries (artistic), Doctor of
Philosophy, and Doctor of Philosophy with a choice of ‘practice-led research’ (both
artistic production and academic writing). In other cases, attempts of producing both art
pieces and academic writing only seem to give double work for candidates at master or
doctorate level. That is, only the artwork or the academic writing is valued, and not the
combined effort. Furthermore, many labels are associated to art as (‘medium-specific’)
research. For example, drama teacher and researcher Brad Haseman (QUT) suggests
‘performative research’ as one of three main research paradigms, distinct from
qualitative and quantitative research in the ways the research is ‘expressed in ‘forms of
symbolic data other than words. These include forms of practice, of still and moving
images, of music and sound, of action and digital code’(Haseman 2006 p. 104). More
radically, Haseman suggests a more precise label of ‘practice-led’ research, inspired by
the following quote:
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‘…firstly research which is initiated in practice, where questions, problems, challenges
are identified and formed by the needs of practice and practitioners; and secondly, that
the research strategy is carried out through practice, using predominantly methodologies
and specific methods familiar to us as practitioners’ (Gray 1996 p. 3).
This implies a research design similar to the way artists and drama teachers apply
conventions, exercises and forms to construct meaning in complex ways, and where a
research ‘problematics’ is not given ‘a priori’, rather delimited during the mediated
process.
Needles to say, the historical distinctions between research and arts are not overcome in
a short move, even if the pragmatic need of re-associating art with research and
knowledge seems to boost the development far better than drama education has ever
managed by its teaching and its research advocacies. On the other hand, since the
seventies there are noticeable contributions in cultural theory, aesthetics, humanities and
social sciences that deal with ‘practice as research’, ‘knowledge through/in action’ or
‘symbolic medium and meaning making’,- through specific research in for example
speech act theories, constructivism, action research, post-structuralism, performativity
theories. Even in education, influential researchers such as Eliot Eisner accept other
forms of representations ‘beyond the literal use of text’, and enlighten arts and the
epistemological ‘power of form’ that informs, reveals and conceals’. (Eisner 2008 p. 26).
Nevertheless, there is a job to be done in our schools and drama research institutions
before we have a sound rationale for knowing in arts, including research knowledge. No
doubt, drama teachers and artists will still for many years bang their heads against the
walls of traditional, educational and scientific hegemony, offering practices that hold a
different epistemology, still poorly understood and performed as an alternative
theoretical rationale for arts, research and education.
Overcoming the dichotomy between theory and practice
Seen from both the perspectives of arts education and artistic research, it seems urgent to
overcome the strict dichotomies between art and research, art and education. Limited
comprehensions of art and research seem to prevent the conceptual bridge that allows
our institutions and societies to recognize, appreciate and defend art as research, art as
education. The dichotomy of theory and practice is one of particular interest, and quite
familiar to drama teaching since the days of progressive education and the slogan of
‘learning by doing’. Following this path, we need to see ‘theorizing’, not distinct from
art, but attached to art. Any researcher or other practician is influenced not only by many
theories (bodies of knowledge), but also by certain comprehensions of theory, a theory of
theory. My claim is that both artists and scholars are basically still supposed to follow
and reinforce a predominantly classical conception of theory. What this means is that
theory is understood as pre-given, objective, and neutral knowledge, a heightened level
of knowledge seemingly purified of human affect and desires, practical interests and
needs,- except the main interest; that theory should be free of interest. By means of
critical theory and its discourse of suspicion (for instance (Bell 2008 p. 5)Bell 2008:5)
we recognize that all descriptions and knowledge are value-laden, political, historical, even the knowledge about theory and research. We furthermore recognize that language
and its concepts embody and express power and ideologies and certain truths that are
privileged (Mumby 1997). An early and well-known contribution of such a critique is
delivered by Jürgen Habermas in his work: Knowledge and Human Interest(Habermas
1978). In this work he argues that there is no theory, no knowledge without interest and
by this he reveals two important assumptions; 1) There are different understandings and
practices of theory and research according to different interests, 2) In spite of this
relativism and contextualization, a dominant understanding of theory repeats itself in
science and philosophy beyond the seemingly different interests. What we see as
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different structures on the surface actually reinforce a common deep-structure belief
system. In addition, one should add the important classical implication that theory is tied
to one specific symbol system, the verbal/written language. The tradition includes not
least a hierarchical belief of reflection from lower, subjective and intentional thinking to
higher pure, objective philosophy. In other words, in our daily humanistic research
context, the more (verbal) meta-reflection and ‘philosophy’ we make the stronger quality
of the research work. Research students are only too familiar with the game of ‘namedropping’ associated with this custom. This ambition of objective truth basically reflects
an old cultural and religious belief in pre-given truth and knowledge as separated from
human interest, removed from the human ‘cult’, literally speaking. If art then has
become the modern substitute for a pre-modern cultic celebrations and mimetic practice,
many artists evidently may see themselves as guardians of a ‘cultic’ behaviour of our
time, and not gatekeepers of theory. In this indirect way, artists are also influenced by
‘the theory of theories’, preventing artists from becoming theoretically interested,
obstructing the recognition of arts processes as both intuitive-affective, as well as highly
reflective, investigative, analytic and detached.
The ‘theoros’ was once a personal representative sent by Greek leadership to attend
public celebrations, to watch and to distance himself from the cultic events. ‘Theoria’
then became, following Schelling and later Habermas, the exercise of contemplation of
the given cosmos, the Being, and in this way this tradition signifies historically the
demarcation between Being and Time. This demarcation line has become unquestioned
and secured in Western culture by our institutional distinctions between philosophy,
theory and research (Being) and temporal and sensuous behaviour such as play and arts
(Time). This classical belief also forms our scientific deductive system, which is still the
basic paradigm for all researchers including drama researchers. By adopting this
paradigm we also adapt the view that art or aesthetic practice is paradigmatically
different from theorizing and research (science). Actually, art and science reinforce each
other mutually within a common agreement of theory and “other” non-theoretical
knowledge. The value of art, underlined in aesthetic philosophy, is hence founded on a
rationale different from science; by terms and dualisms like presence versus cool
detachment, feeling versus reason and subjective perspective versus objective truth/
theory. This has become a main obstruction to drama education and other humanistic
research and needs to be challenged.
Judith Butler, a late modern feminist researcher, states that theory is not just housed in
universities or in books; theory “is an activity that takes place every time a possibility is
imagined, a collective self-reflection takes place, a dispute over values, priorities, and
language emerges” (Butler 2004 p. 176). Such activities truly take place in the arts and
lead to many art productions. We are hence increasingly faced with a notion of theory
that includes artistic practices. Aslaug Nyrnes (2008) claims, from a rhetorical
perspective, that theory is inscribed in the production of arts, arts production may be a
way of thinking (Nyrnes 2008 p. 22). Often, the production of art means in this context a
production of insight, not of theory. Clearly this distinction depends on an understanding
of theory different from the open position Butler provides. Even if one acknowledges
distinctions between theoretical and sensuous knowledge, one should also acknowledge
arenas for the connection within the same cultural event so to speak. Karl Weick, in his
rather orthodox discussion of the nature of theory, admits this: ‘Perhaps the ultimate
trade-off is the one between process and product, between theorizing and theory,
between doing it and freezing it (Weick 1995 p. 390)
Artists, arts teachers, craftsmen and children have the potential to know within their own
cultural action, within their practices. If we believe that all practices are potentially
reflexive we may say that in all playing, human actions and drama, there is always a
77
potential implicit onlooker, there is a potential discussion, thought and debriefing. In all
‘writing’, no matter in which media, there is always a potential reader that may be a
necessity for the art product. The ‘theoros’ exists within the ensemble, within the actor,
and we should remind ourselves that even mimetic practice is a forming, reflective
exercise.(Habermas 1978 p. 302). This is an important epistemological credo not least
for drama education. Moreover, seen from a perspective of for example child psychiatrist
and sociologist Winnicott (1991), the mimetic exercise is not only reflective, but shapes
the abstract thinking ability and the capacity of becoming both a timely player and a
‘theoros’.
In research, theorizing might need a stranger like the old ‘theoros’, but not necessarily.
The theoretical paradigm we need to establish, is the paradigm that holds that the cult is
not blind, not more than everyday practice may be blind, also the practice of reading
books and writing dissertations. Playful practice in all forms was never only blind,
hedonistic and narcissistic. We are just taught to believe so, probably for the sake of
human hierarchy and power relations. Theory as formed knowledge is possibly
generated intentionally in any symbol system. What I am proposing is that any media is
potentially discursive. Theory should therefore not be set and limited to one specific
discursive media, neither to a hierarchy of high or low reflection.
Is then any practice ‘theoretical’? Of course not. The lack of relational understanding,
lack of perspectives and detachment make practice blind and ‘non-theoretical’ to both
artists as well as other researchers. Beyond the institutionalized dualism, we should
direct our attention to important distinctions within stages of cultural media practice. For
example, Allern (2002) directs us to the ‘chaotic’ or ‘orgiastic’ dimension of existence
through another classical concept, which is familiar to theatre and drama education
through the works of Boal and Bolton. ‘Methexis’ is comprehended as the existential
condition of confusion, chaos and multi-perspectives from where we strive to understand
and conceptualize through selections and durable forms. What this means is that a
dynamic, playful “chaos” as well as ‘theorizing’ may exist within the same media
process, within the same producer or community. This is the dynamic link we conceal by
the institutionalized separation of sensuous life and academic reflection. The
contemporary educated, ethical man does not emerge from schooling, but from the
changing practical media experiences of both particular ‘play’ and detached reflections.
People are (or rather could be) educated in the shift between playing and play reflection,
even if we know that our current drama practices tend to favour the one to the detriment
of the other.
Some possible consequences for research training in arts disciplines
My attempt to comprehend theory differently may have some implications for research
training in arts disciplines. First, I think we need to limit the scope of research theory to
new research students. By trying to cover the whole research chronology, all designs and
possible methods, we tend to be exhausted by the time we reach logical positivism,
without ever dealing with the highly relevant late modern conceptions of research,
theory, meaning and knowledge. Secondly, we may build specific research production
designs where reflection, interpretation and knowledge are shown on different levels of
the playful work. This means that the artwork is not the only or final ‘theoretical’
product to consider, furthermore that documented reflections within the arts practice
have no lesser value than the literary interpretation of the practice. Instead of defending
the classical hierarchy of higher and lower quality of understanding, we may encourage
an epistemological paradigm that bridges the bodily, sensuous participation and the
detached contemplation. This bridge is not well provided in any case of western
education, research training included, and this is also why we need to develop a renewed
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conception of theory for all ‘cultic’ dancers of today, who both read, feel and think in
words, sounds and movements.
References
Bell, E. T. (2008). Theories of Performance. London: Sage Publications.
Butler, J. (2004). Undoing gender. New York: Routledge.
Eisner, E. W. (2008). Persistent tensions in arts based research. In Arts based research in
education, edited by M. Cahnmann-Taylor. London: Routledge.
Gray, C. (2005). Inquiry through practice: developing appropriate research strategies
1996 [cited 12 January 2005]. Available from http://www2.rgu.ac.uk/criad/cgpapers/
ngnm/ngnm.htm.
Habermas, J. (1978). Knowledge and human interests. 2nd ed. London: Heinemann.
Hannula, M., Suoranta J. & Vadén T. (2005). Artistic research: theories, methods and
practices. Helsinki: Academy of Fine Arts.
Haseman, B. C. (2006). A manifesto for performative research. . Media International
Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy: quarterly journal of media research and
resources 118:98-106.
Mumby, D. (1997). Modernism, Postmodernism and Communication studies
Communication Theory 7 (1):1-28.
Nyrnes, A. (2008). Ut frå det konkrete : innleiing til ein retorisk kunstfagdidaktikk. In Ut
frå det konkrete: bidrag til ein retorisk kunstfagdidaktikk, edited by A. Nyrnes and N.
Lehmann. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Weick, K. (1995). What theory is not, theorizing is. Administrative Science Quarterly
40:385-90.
Winnicott, D. W. (1991). Playing and reality. London: Routledge.
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8. Drama måste byggas i vardagen
– dramalärares ledarskap
Eva Österlind
Abstract
Do drama teachers have a specific way of leading, and if so – how can it be described?
The question is addressed by interviews with three experienced Swedish drama-teachers.
Drama-teachers have a unique competence that differs from the competence of other
schoolteachers and drama pedagogues. The drama teachers strive to create a sense of
unity and integration. Their leadership can be characterized as democratic and
transformative. It resembles how leadership in the so called new economy is described.
In both cases leadership has to do with supporting others, coordinate and create shared
meaning.
Finns det ett dramapedagogiskt ledarskap och hur kan det i så fall karakteriseras? Frågan
har sysselsatt mig på senare tid och personligen är jag beredd att svara ja, det finns det,
men utan andra argument än hänvisning till min egen erfarenhet. De allra flesta som
genomgått en ledar- eller lärarutbildning har fått träning i att vara ledare, men den som är
skolad i dramapedagogik har dessutom fått tillgång till specifika verktyg och tekniker,
övningar och förhållningssätt, för att skapa ett kreativt arbetsklimat och utöva ett
ledarskap som ger deltagarna både utrymme och inspiration, trygghet och utmaningar.
Med denna förförståelse i bagaget började jag undersöka om det verkligen finns något
som kan kallas ett dramapedagogiskt ledarskap. Till grund för detta kapitel ligger
intervjuer med tre välutbildade och erfarna dramalärare, vilket gör att ledarskapets
kontext i det här fallet är klassrummet.
En studie av hur lärare tänker när de väljer att använda drama i undervisningen visar att
lärarna uppfattar drama som en holistisk metod (Öfverström 2006). Att drama inte
används mer i skolan kan enligt Öfverström bero på att ”drama som metod kräver både
teoretiska kunskaper och praktiska färdigheter kopplat till de ämnen som ska undervisas
i… [eftersom] fokus ligger på lärande och personlig utveckling som ett” (2006, s. 110).
Lärarna i studien hävdar att eleverna får lättare att lära, genom att processen är aktiv och
det sker ett växelspel mellan upplevelser och inlevelse i kunskapen. Även Berggraf
Sæbø (2009) finner att lärare har en positiv inställning till drama Hon anser att lärare
”burde bruke drama oftare for å ivareta elevenes behov i læringsprosessen” (s. 243), men
påvisar att användningen av drama och undervisningens kvalitet är beroende av lärarnas
dramakompetens.
Ledarskap och arbetsformer i skolan
Forskning om ledarskap ägnades inledningsvis åt att försöka identifiera ledaregenskaper,
vad som kännetecknar en ledare. Detta följdes av studier om vad ledare faktiskt gör,
vilket så småningom ledde till ett intresse för sambandet mellan ledarstil och kulturell
kontext (Harris 2005). I engelskspråkig litteratur gör man en tydlig åtskillnad mellan
’leadership’ och ’management’ (Svenningsson & Larsson 2006). Enkelt uttryckt handlar
det första om att inspirera, peka ut en riktning och åstadkomma förändring genom
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visioner, medan det andra handlar om planering och styrning av mer formellt slag. På
svenska görs inte den här åtskillnaden utan båda aspekterna inkluderas i begreppet
ledarskap.
Man har även använt beteckningen ’transactional leadership’, som syftar på att ledaren
med hjälp av strukturer och procedurer byter belöningar, t.ex. pengar, guldstjärnor eller
betyg, mot utfört arbete. I motsats till det står ’transformative leadership’ som betonar
personer, relationer och individuellt engagemang, och där ledaren istället satsar på
inspiration, motivation och intellektuell stimulans (Österlind & Sörling 2006). I nyare
forskning är ’visionärt ledarskap’, samarbete och kreativitet några nyckelbegrepp
(Svenningsson & Larsson 2006). Man talar även om ’distribuerat ledarskap’ (Gronn
2002), som innebär att ansvar och inflytande sprids och delas.
Inom forskningslitteraturen görs också en klar åtskillnad
mellan ’leaders’ och
’followers’, alltså de som leder respektive blir ledda. I samband med ledarskap i skolan
är den skillnaden påtaglig. Lärare har ett formellt ledaransvar i klassrummet. Lärarna är
dessutom vuxna och de kan t.ex. välja att lämna klassrummet, medan eleverna är barn
och inte har samma frihet. Dessa olika förutsättningar gör att förhållandet mellan lärare
och elever i grund och botten är ojämlikt och läraren har, åtminstone formellt sett, en
maktposition. Den kan dock hanteras på olika sätt (jfr Forsberg 2000).
Alla lärare behöver utöver ämneskompetens och didaktisk kompetens också
ledarkompetens. Det har gjorts otaliga försök att definiera ledarskap och vilka aspekter
som bör inkluderas, t.ex. planering, kommunikation, motivation, organisering och
kontroll. Stensmo definierar lärares ledarkompetens som ”att kunna organisera och leda
skolklassen som arbetande kollektiv: hantera frågor om disciplin, ordning och
elevomsorg, gruppera elever för olika arbetsuppgifter och interaktionsmönster,
individualisera elevers arbete och lärande” (Stensmo 1997, s. 7). Att etablera och
upprätthålla ordning betraktas som en central aspekt av lärares ledarskap och ”läraren
måste vara den ständige vårdaren av denna process” (a.a. s. 8).
En annan väsentlig dimension av lärares ledarskap har att göra med hur undervisningen
organiseras, där helklassundervisning, individuellt arbete och grupparbete har olika föroch nackdelar. Undervisning i helklass kan t.ex. medföra passivitet, bristande
koncentration och ordningsproblem. ”Helklasslektioner är mindre lämpliga då
undervisningen kräver aktiv elevmedverkan, bearbetning av komplext, detaljerat och
abstrakt stoff /…/ och då de frågor som behandlas har flera möjliga svar” (Stensmo
1997, s. 33). Individuellt arbete kan istället innebära en ytlig reproduktion av
faktakunskaper, där eleverna inte stimuleras av att möta andras uppfattningar och inte får
chansen att lära av varandra (jfr Österlind 1998).
Ett problem med att få grupparbete att fungera handlar om att eleverna ofta är utlämnade
åt sig själva, ett annat att eleverna fördelar uppgifterna sinsemellan så att inget samarbete
uppstår. Enligt Törnquist kan problemen motverkas genom lärarens aktiva medverkan
och uppgifternas utformning. ”Ett aktivt deltagande av lärarna och medvetna strategier
visar sig /…/ vara värdefulla i arbetsprocessen. Läraren som medkonstruktör av kunskap
visar sig vara av stor vikt” (Törnquist 2006, s 17 m hänv t Alexandersson). Stensmo
konstaterar också att ”det goda grupparbetet förutsätter att eleverna förbereds genom
olika former av social träning”, t.ex. träning i att kommunicera, hantera konflikter och
”upptäcka gruppdynamiska mönster” (1997, s. 33-34), något som ofta ingår i
dramaundervisning.
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Frågeställning och förutsättningar
Vad kännetecknar dramapedagogiskt ledarskap i klassrummet? För att besvara den
övergripande frågeställningen har tre personer, alla erfarna lärare och dramapedagoger,
intervjuats. Intervjuerna är genomförda inom ramen för ett projekt om praxisnära,
utbildningsvetenskaplig forskning. 1 För att markera intervjupersonernas specifika
kompetens i förhållande till klasslärare och dramapedagoger kallas de i texten för
’dramalärare’. Den preliminära analysen kan beskrivas som ett försök att genom
’meningskoncentrat’ (jfr Kvale 1996) söka en gemensam kärna i lärarnas synsätt. En
uppenbar begränsning är dock att jag inte haft möjlighet att se lärarna i aktion i
klassrummet.
Intervjupersonerna är kvinnor och utbildade mellanstadielärare. Alla tre har förutom
lärarutbildning ett eller två års utbildning i drama. De har valt att vidareutbilda sig
antingen genom högskolekurser parallellt med arbetet som lärare, eller i form av
dramapedagogutbildning på heltid. Utöver en omfattande vidareutbildning har de tre
dramalärarna gedigen erfarenhet av att arbeta i grundskolan, både som lärare och
dramapedagog. Som dramapedagog kommer man in i skolan på bestämda tider, en gång
i veckan eller vid enstaka tillfällen, för att arbeta med en klass eller grupp under en
begränsad period och kanske med ett givet tema. Som klasslärare har man flera ämnen
och disponerar mycket tid med samma elevgrupp och kan väva in drama i skoldagen.
Som dramalärare kan man även få möjlighet att arbeta med drama som ämne under
längre perioder. Såväl tillfälliga insatser som att integrera drama i den övriga
undervisningen och att arbeta med drama som eget ämne har sitt värde. Dramalärarnas
synsätt kommer till uttryck både i termer av vad de eftersträvar och vad de vill undvika
eller är kritiska emot. Detta återspeglas i den preliminära analysen nedan.
Helhet och integrering
Det överordnade begrepp som bäst beskriver dramalärarnas vision är Helhet. Det är
deras ledstjärna, och det gäller såväl undervisningens uppläggning och innehåll som att
integrera sociala, känslomässiga och kognitiva aspekter och få med samtliga elever ”ofta
försöker jag skapa ett sammanhang”. Kontinuitet och djup är också viktigt för helheten.
Dramalärarna är angelägna om att överbrygga glappet mellan elevernas erfarenheter och
kunskapsstoffet, ”det känns som att de har mycket mer gedigen kunskap nu”, och
underlätta för eleverna att tillägna sig ny kunskap med hjälp av dramatiska
uttrycksformer ”en fiktiv situation… där man är känslomässigt berörd”. Traditionell
undervisning sägs betona det kognitiva och bortse från det sociala och känslomässiga.
Den utgår inte från elevernas erfarenheter och lyckas enligt dramalärarna inte särskilt bra
med att få eleverna att omvandla information till kunskap.
Läroplansreformer devalverar lärares kunnande och skapar stress, vilket i sin tur kan
leda till en slags handlingsförlamning som går ut över kreativiteten och viljan att
experimentera och pröva sig fram. Dramalärarna menar att senare års fokus på
bedömning och betyg skapat osäkerhet hos många lärare ”jag tycker det har blivit väldigt
snävt och fyrkantigt”. Men trots att betygskriterierna är relativt detaljerade hävdar
dramalärarna att det finns en stor frihet att utforma undervisningen, och att kriterierna
inte alls behöver fungera begränsande. Dramaarbetet är i själva verket inriktat mot att
utveckla just sådana kompetenser och kunskapskvaliteter som uttrycks i
betygskriterierna för de högre betygen. Genom att arbeta med drama får läraren också en
mycket god bild av elevernas kunskaper ”jag får ju bevis på vad de kan på ett helt annat
1
Bidrag från Vetenskapsrådets utbildningsvetenskapliga kommitté finansierade ett nätverk
bestående av lokala projektgrupper med uppdrag att formulera praxisnära forskningsprojekt (se
Österlind & Sternudd-Groth 2005).
83
sätt”, och prov blir i princip onödiga.
När dramalärarna kommenterar lärarutbildningen blir bristen på helhet uppenbar.
Exempelvis betonas den bristande samordningen mellan högskolan och praktikskolans
handledare, och det svaga sambandet mellan teori och praktik i utbildningen. Orientering
om olika pedagogiska perspektiv hinner sällan mogna till kunskap grundad på
lärarkandidatens egna ställningstaganden. Även inslaget av drama i lärarutbildningen
beskrivs som mycket bristfälligt. Kritiken riktar sig här främst mot att antalet lektioner är
så begränsat, och mot att de övningar som görs är lösryckta och inte relaterade till ett
praktiskt och konkret undervisningssammanhang, ”vi fick se små gruppövningar, det
hängde inte ihop med det andra vi skulle göra i skolan”.
Vidareutbildningen i drama beskrivs däremot i oerhört positiva ordalag. Det var en stark
upplevelse att möta dramapedagogisk teoribildning, som i Gavin Boltons texter.
Deltagarnas egna erfarenheter var en viktig utgångspunkt och reflektion var ett stående
inslag. ”Man fick en känsla, man hade med sig någonting i kroppen när man gick
därifrån.” Min tolkning är att man ägnade sig åt de didaktiska frågorna, kanske framför
allt ’Hur?’ och ’Varför?’, i betydligt högre grad inom dramautbildningen än i
lärarutbildningen och att man dessutom bearbetade dessa frågor på ett inspirerande sätt –
med hjälp av drama.
Det dramapedagogiska ledarskapet är svårt att beskriva i sig, eftersom det utformas i
samspel med och som uttryck för dramalärarnas kunskapssyn och deras syn på eleverna.
I båda fallen är integration eller integrering nyckelordet. Det generella och det
personliga, det intellektuella, känslomässiga och fysiska, det praktiska, det dramatiska
och det teoretiska, individen och gruppen måste integreras. Drama som metod bygger på
det, och lärarnas syn på vad meningsfull undervisning innebär kräver det. Lärarens
uppgift är att bygga broar mellan eleverna och kunskapsstoffet, och för att det ska vara
möjligt måste man ta sin utgångspunkt i elevernas erfarenheter. Lärarna understryker
också vikten av att alla elever verkligen är delaktiga, och att dramapedagogik ger goda
förutsättningar att uppnå det.
Själva ledarskapet, utifrån den information som finns tillgänglig i intervjuerna, framstår
som medvetet och lyhört – även om det säkert inte alltid är så. Enligt lärarna handlar det
om att som ledare våga lita på eleverna och ge allas idéer samma chans, ”det handlar så
oerhört mycket om att lyssna.” Man måste kunna avläsa elevernas behov och möta dem
där de befinner sig ”det är mitt ansvar som ledare att se till vad den här gruppen behöver
och... skapa sådana situationer”. En förutsättning för att arbeta med drama är enligt
lärarna att eleverna känner sig trygga ”de måste känna sig trygga i det här annars så går
det inte”. Det uppnås bland annat genom att ledaren upprätthåller vissa spelregler som
t.ex. att man inte nedvärderar eller kommenterar andra elevers insatser. Sist men inte
minst gäller det att göra undervisningen mer omväxlande och rolig.
Dramalärarna hävdar att drama som ämne borde finnas på schemat, men själva föredrar
de att arbeta med drama integrerat i undervisningen. Anledningen till att de hellre arbetar
med drama integrerat i det dagliga skolarbetet är att man på det sättet kan uppnå flera
mål samtidigt. Exempelvis kan gruppdynamiken bearbetas indirekt, inom ramen för ett
kunskapsområde. Detta är att föredra, anser lärarna, framför allt för att tillfälliga insatser
inte ger samma resultat som mer kontinuerligt arbete – ’drama måste byggas i vardagen’.
Sammanfattningsvis
I egenskap av utbildade, erfarna lärare med fortbildning motsvarande ett eller två års
heltidsstudier har dramalärarna utan tvivel en utökad kompetens jämfört med sina
kollegor. De kan något mer helt enkelt. Om denna kompetens lyfts fram eller
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nonchaleras på skolorna framgår inte av intervjuerna, men en nedtoning av
dramalärarnas specialkunskaper är inte osannolik. En längtan efter kollegor med
liknande kompetens, som arbetar med drama ’på samma genomgripande sätt’,
framskymtar i intervjuerna.
I relation till dramapedagoger som inte har lärarutbildning kan dessa lärare också något
mer, inte om drama men om skolan. Även i det fallet har de alltså en unik kompetens. De
intervjuade lärarna uttrycker en viss skepsis i relation till dramapedagoger som gör
tillfälliga insatser i skolan, inklusive när de själva i rollen som dramapedagog genomför
sådana uppdrag. Dramalärarna hävdar också att dramapedagoger sällan inser hur mycket
drama som faktiskt ryms inom ramen för ämnesundervisning i till exempel engelska.
Dramalärarna uttrycker även en viss skepsis gentemot teaterarbetare som vill använda
drama för att nå publiken på ett annat sätt i samband med sina föreställningar. Här
reagerar dramalärarna mot att engångshändelser kopplade till professionell teater åtnjuter
jämförelsevis hög status och väcker större intresse än det långsiktiga arbete som bedrivs
dagligen i skolan. En känsla av ensamhet samt brist på förståelse för vad de uträttar och
för dramapedagogikens potential tycks med andra ord vara förknippade med
dramalärares unika kompetens.
Drama bygger på samspel och kreativitet och hos de intervjuade lärarna framträder en
genuin strävan efter delaktighet och ett demokratiskt ledarskap, vilket bl.a. innebär
ansvar för att etablera en trygg miljö där alla elever respekteras. Dramalärarna tycks ha
lyckats väl med detta, de beskriver att drama leder till färre konflikter och ökad
sammanhållning bland eleverna. Dramalärarnas synsätt, t.ex. deras förhållande till
betygskriterierna, kan tolkas som uttryck för en högre grad av självförtroende och större
säkerhet i yrkesrollen jämfört med deras kollegor med enbart lärarutbildning.
När det gäller användningen av drama i skolan konstaterar Öfverström (2006) att
”lärandeperspektivet i betydelsen av att inhämta kunskaper [ofta] förbises” (s. 127),
vilket bekräftas av de tre dramalärarnas erfarenheter. En orsak är sannolikt att ’vanliga’
lärare har bristfälliga kunskaper om drama. För att exempelvis använda processdrama i
undervisningen krävs specifik lärarkompetens enligt Berggraf Sæbø (2009).
Dramalärarnas utsagor tyder på att dramapedagogiska arbetsformer ger möjlighet att
genomföra såväl helklassundervisning som grupparbeten på ett mer meningsfullt sätt.
Det är i så fall högst intressant, eftersom det behövs alternativ till individuellt skolarbete,
men för att undersöka om det verkligen förhåller sig så krävs komparativa studier (jfr
Österlind & Sternudd-Groth 2005).
Dramalärarnas ledarskap är transformativt till sin karaktär, medan ett transaktionellt
ledarskap eventuellt är mer vanligt i traditionell undervisning. Ledare inom den så
kallade nya ekonomin har enligt Holmberg och Strannegård (2005) det överordnade
målet att stödja andra, och deras ledarskap handlar om att samordna och skapa mening
(coordinate and create shared meaning). Beskrivningen av ledarskap inom IT-sektorn
ser ut att vara giltig även för dramalärares ledarskap, trots vitt skilda branscher och
arbetsvillkor. Dramalärarnas svar på de öppna intervjufrågorna är väldigt samstämmiga,
vilket bidrar till intrycket av en gemensam kärna i det dramapedagogiska ledarskapet.
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Referenser
Berggraf Sæbø, A. (2009). Drama og elevaktiv læring. En studie av hvordan drama
svarer på undervisnings- og læringsprosessens didaktiske utfordringer. Trondheim:
NTNU.
Forsberg, E. (2000). Elevinflytandets många ansikten. (Uppsala Studies in Education,
93.) Uppsala universitet.
Gronn, P. (2002). Distributed leadership as a unit of analysis. The Leadership
Quarterly, 13, 423–451.
Harris, A. (2005) Leading from the Calk-face. An Overview of School Leadership.
Leadership 1(1), 73–87.
Holmberg, I.-L. and Strannegård, L. (2005). Leadership Voices. The Ideology of ’The
New Economy’. Leadership 1(3), 353–374.
Kvale, S. (1996). InterViews. An introduction to qualitative research interviewing.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Stensmo, C. (1997). Ledarskap i klassrummet. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Svenningson, S. and Larsson, M. (2006). Fantasies of Leadership. Identity Work.
Leadership, 2(2), 203–224.
Törnquist, E.-M. (2006). Att iscensätta lärande. Lärares reflexioner över det
pedagogiska arbetet i en konstnärlig kontext. (Studies in Music and Music Education)
Lunds universitet.
Öfverström, C. (2006). Upplevelse, inlevelse och reflektion – drama som aktiv metod i
lärandet. En teoretisk analys och en empirisk undersökning av hur lärare tänker när de
använder drama som metod. (Lic. avh.) Linköpings universitet.
Österlind, E. (1998). Disciplinering via frihet. Elevers planering av sitt eget arbete.
(Uppsala Studies in Education, 75), Uppsala universitet.
Österlind, E. and Sternudd-Groth, M.-M. (2005). Instructional Design and Student
Learning – Is There a
Connection? Process Drama compared with Individual
Instruction and Whole Class Teaching. Paper presented at internat. drama conf. Exeter
University. April 2005.
Österlind, E. and Sörling, S. (2006). Leadership in Work Organization based on SelfManagement. Paper presenterat vid NFPF´s konferens i Örebro. Mars 2006.
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9. Researching Drama and Theatre Education – are we
telling believers tales?
Hannu M. Heikkinen
Abstract
In this article Hannu Heikkinen reflects upon what kind of culture drama education
creates and reflects. Throughout the text he is examining central questions regarding the
value of drama and the themes of drama educational research. The text is in dialogue
with excerpts from Finnish drama students’ learning diary entries and with Finnish
drama and theatre educational research.
Introduction
Research in drama education has seen fast developments since the 1990s. In Finland,
drama is now considered a valid research topic in the instructional science of Finnish
along with reading, writing, speaking, listening, literature and media. Indeed, drama fits
well into this frame of reference. According to some opinions, in the new curriculum
drama should be turned into a subject called ‘theatre art’. I am concerned that this would
mean reverting to the method-subject (drama-theatre) dilemma, which does not serve the
purposes of drama in the school. This is an issue that raises feelings and passions for and
against, and hence in this article I ask are we able to look at drama and theatre as
objective researchers or do we look at the subject through rose-tinted glasses?
I have asked myself this question in my work teaching drama education students at the
University of Jyväskylä during 2000–2005 and 2008–2009. During this work I collected
learning diaries from my students. I used this material in my doctoral dissertation and
have since continued. The examples used here are students’ comments gathered from this
material, not comments made by an individual student. Comments made in learning
diaries often contain strong feelings, while a more analytical approach is still finding its
place, sneaking in here and there. Of course it should be kept in mind that the writers are
students, whose ideas still need time to mature. The following comments exemplify
students’ comments on what they have learned e.g. from courses on process drama and
theatre.
•
•
•
I learned a lot of technical stuff, how to put lights up, how to do things like
that.
I learned about how it feels to be somebody else.
A lot, but I can’t really say exactly what I’ve learned, there was so much
going on …
Learning is seen as something very concrete, or perhaps it takes time for students to
recognise what they have learned. For the main part, drama work is considered positive,
as indicated in the doctoral dissertations of Tapio Toivanen, Soile Rusanen and Erkki
Laakso. According to Toivanen (2002), the main content of teaching theatre work is
87
related to acting, namely to concentration, contact and interaction, which create a strong
intensity between members of a group. Rusanen (2002) examined the diaries of her
drama students and found eight reoccurring themes, which she goes on to interpret in the
empirical part of her study. The themes are courage, joy, relaxation, self-discipline,
concentration, acting, empathy and working in a group. An important observation here
from an educational point of view is an increased level of empathy amongst students.
Empathy is built on self-knowledge: the better we recognise and understand our own
feelings the better we are at interpreting the moods of others. Empathy means
compassion, imagining yourself in someone else’s shoes. Theatre and drama education
seems to be a good way to improve this skill. Laakso (2005) studied students’ drama
experiences. He found that life experiences of participants could through drama work
support teaching. Previous life experiences and memories were activated. They brought
both a will to share the experiences with others and work through them. It seems that in
all the abovementioned studies, including my own, positive results receive more
attention than negative ones. Now that I look at my material again, I feel I should go
through it once more as a whole, this time concentrating more on problems and blind
spots – what are the issues and themes on which we remain silent?
Drama and theatre as learning areas
Drama education is considered to be the creation and study of meaning. Drama
education tells stories in many different ways: verbally, visually, spatially and physically.
Drama education is examining, joining together and realising things – it moves in the
areas of emotional, cognitive and social experience.
•
•
I see drama as an excuse to express myself.
you are giving a permission to explore anything you like, and if you say it is to
do with drama then it is ok.
It is thought that the genres of drama education can open up “spaces of possibilities”
between education and art. The task of the drama teacher is to guide and help the group
to mould a one-dimensional world of teaching into a multi-dimensional world of
learning. Together with his students the teacher builds a world of fiction, drama, into
which they travel together, now and again re-emerging to discuss and plan events of the
drama. Dramas created in drama education are considered areas of learning; it is not a
question of a teaching method. In drama, learning occurs flexibly by going into fiction,
acting there and re-emerging. The pattern and structure are alive – the teacher creates a
frame in which the group acts together and creates worlds of drama.
In principle all take part in actively creating fiction. Issues arising in drama are studied
and played with, and new connections between issues are sought. New meanings are
created together in four dramatised frames: the narrative (creates the framework), the
participatory (encourages action and cooperation), the performative (the means and skills
to express), and the explorative (reflective, analytical, the study of meaning). This is the
theory. However, a group often includes strong individuals who take the dramatic world
forward, or sometimes the teacher’s ideas are followed. Most importantly, however,
compared to other subjects or discussion alone, drama allows a different level of
experimentation and can offer a more profound insight into issues. This is an argument I
have often made (Heikkinen 1998, 2002, 2004), but now that I look at the learning
88
diaries again I see that the investigatory, analytical and reflective approach is perhaps not
so evident after all. Maybe we should reach behind the aesthetic experience (cf. the work
of Eisner, Ross, Abbs and Best) and state that knowledge gained through drama
experiences cannot be put into words, only felt physically or transferred to the sensory
world, and further into a deeper consciousness. However, I still feel that this explanation
is not enough, particularly as students express the issue almost in passing as an idea or
wish:
•
•
If you take classic example of bullying, and if there are two children in a class
of young children who are been bullied, drama is a way to make all the children
aware of how those two children might feel. Drama makes people think and
question how it feels to be in that position.
Drama is a really good way of deconstructing things and children don't often get
the chance to rip something to pieces and deconstruct it.
How effective is this kind of learning in reality? I have been involved in annual school
tours introducing Theatre-in-Education programmes in the Jyväskylä region in Finland.
Our group, Drama teacher students, have also gone into schools to make process drama.
Themes we have dealt with vary from fairytale worlds to the issue of violence amongst
young girls. I am always left with the feeling that we have been able to make people stop
and think, and the schools look forward to having us back the next year. Thus, it is easy
to believe that drama does have an effect – at least it seems to have a positive effect on
teacher students. But what about school children? If schools do not have systematic
drama and theatre education, can we even expect learning results from those short visits?
“Would it the be better to do nothing if it has no benefit?” asked Howard Gardner in
Paris in 2006. Project Zero, a Harvard University research project spanning several years
on the effects of art education, raises this question. In their book “Cooling conflict: a
new approach to managing bullying and conflict in schools” John O'Toole, Bruce Burton
and Anna Plunkett (2004) talk about a multi-year research project that, as a drama and
peer teaching method accepted by the entire school community, has reaped good results.
A systematic approach and the school as a community are perhaps key factors in this
project.
Drama education is structured and developed similarly to the way drama worlds are
created in the theatre, and participation in the creation of these worlds can be satisfying,
pedagogically and dramatically speaking significant. Opening the door to the drama
world can start, for example, by a picture, poem, expression, idea, place, character or
story. This stimulus only cracks open the door; the drama story itself is more significant,
framing and guiding the work. The drama story – and by this I mean both making theatre
and process drama, and applied drama, which can all be approached by an open drama
story – creates the basis for a drama process, it starts up role work and instantly creates a
joint imaginary context. The purpose of the story is to set up expectations and tensions.
A good drama story frames the drama world; it is like a script that needs completing.
The drama story also puts the drama process into focus. The teacher is responsible, based
on the drama story, to guide the group’s work and create tensions in the drama by
various aesthetic and dramatic choices. Real-world relationships no longer apply. In this
jointly created fiction participants have permission to change their status, role,
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responsibilities, play with elements of reality and study alternative realities. The task of
the teacher is to help build drama worlds where students are able, using their available
knowledge and skills, to act as freely and naturally as possible. This action is not free,
however, but guided by the chosen genre and the limits and conditions imposed by the
drama world. In order for the activity to be aesthetically educational, it must have an
underlying tone of serious playfulness: the freedom to explore, create, observe and
experiment.
I have written (2002, 2004) about serious playfulness, which I consider to be a central
philosophical stance and the drama-pedagogical knowledge of the teacher – knowledge
and skills in the framework of drama as a learning area. Serious playfulness takes into
account the nature of drama and theatre and on that basis creates a theatrical and
educational dialogue. The content aim is to examine issues from different perspectives,
and the activity aim is to learn how to take on and throw oneself into a role, and to read
and analyse a dramatic text. The context of the time-self-place transformation is chosen
in advance, but otherwise the transformation is alive and changes according to what kind
of dialogue is formed and what choices are made. Social and aesthetic rules are
continuously negotiated – interfaces and meanings are sought even from unlikely places.
Playfulness is an important force bringing energy and joy in this process: without serious
playfulness providing energy and guiding activities, the process falls apart and the
dramatic tension disappears, along with the idea of drama as a learning area.
The value of drama education – is it about aesthetic learning or dealing with issues,
or both?
Currently, my own research work is chiefly interested in understanding, analysing and
interpreting emotional, cognitive and cultural learning experiences. In this context, I ask
myself and the readers of this article the following question: are we able to take a
sufficient mental distance without leaving ourselves too far from drama and theatre as a
phenomenon? I have aimed at finding ways of observing and studying from both
narrative research and researching my own work. One important source of drama
research I have used is O’Toole’s (2006) book “Doing Drama Research”.
As regards Nordic research of drama education, the central thesis of Nils Braanaas,
Norwegian pioneer in drama education, relates to highlighting the aesthetic significance
of drama in defining the subject. Braanaas (1985/1992) argues that art subjects should
not be made pedagogical i.e. they should not be emphasised as methods or tools in
teaching other subjects. Indeed, it is justified to say that art subjects are not primary
learning methods. According to Braanaas, the task of drama education in schools is not
to turn pupils into better thinkers or to change attitudes or deepen learning of languages
or other subjects. The aim instead is aesthetic knowledge. This idea is perhaps not in
accordance with the abovementioned ‘Drama Worlds as Learning Areas’. But what does
aesthetics mean to students?
•
•
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The aesthetic bit is more about watching rather than doing.
You can appreciate something: if you went to see a play you are not directly
involved in it, so you are looking at it objectively through an aesthetic
appreciation of it.
•
•
While you are subjectively involved in a drama process it’s more about learning
about life through drama.
While you are doing drama... there is the built-in aesthetic in it, isn’t there? And
how you reflect upon it?
The question of aesthetic experience (see Østern 2001, 2002; O’Neill 1995) in drama
education is interesting. On the one hand one moves inside an art form, playing the
games of theatre. On the other hand one aims to distance oneself (Brecht, Boal) from the
fictional reality, or at least look at it from a different perspective. Perhaps the idea that
Bjorn Rasmussen (1990, 1998) has written about can help comprehend the world of
drama as a learning area without reducing the significance of its aesthetic experience.
Rasmussen talks about the importance of play. He says that the “as if” actor is not
necessarily the central explanation of play and through that the learning potential of
drama education, but rather an “energy” sparked by entering the world of play and
drama. Thus, playfulness is the factor through which both the aesthetic experience and
dealing with issues can be analysed. In an interesting way, Danish researcher Nils
Lehman (1997) seeks a theory that would liven up our rational culture. Lehman seeks an
intellectual and experienced “space” in which we could experience the force of life in a
way that joins together the rational and emotional experience. Perhaps this concept of a
“third space” has something to offer as concerns what happens in the worlds of drama –
to what extent do participants actually move in an emotional or intellectual third space?
Students sometimes mention this in their comments:
•
It is value free because nobody will judge you or prosecute you for what you
say within the context of drama and you always got the excuse to say, that is not
me, that's not me, it's my character, even if it ultimately is you.
•
You could say anything and it would be all right. In real life you can't, or in real
life you can but you have to deal with the real consequences...
These comments indicate that the dramas the students talk about have dared to play with
serious issues and themes, and that they have left some emotional marks on the
participants. In addition, aesthetic doubling, though mentioned only implicitly, has been
acknowledged at some level. This is one of the challenges in drama education: how does
research deal with the issue of aesthetic doubling? The lifeworld and the fictional world
are both present in it – can they be separated from one another? Or should they be?
Lifeworld means the most common entity in which subjects may be observed. It is an
entity formed by research objects of human research: the individual, the community,
social interaction, values and human relationships in general. To quote Sara Routarinne
(2008), conversation analyst, “it is like a social architecture”. This metaphor also fits the
research of drama education, in which there is both the architecture of the social
situation and the architecture of the fictive situation. Perhaps aesthetic and pedagogical
experiencing and understanding can best be explained when drama and theatre education
is tied to communal learning and the exploratory role of art is emphasised. The language
and symbolism of theatre is utilised here, and learning in fiction takes place through both
symbols and aesthetic experiences.
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Conclusion – Should we believe or prove the power of “Metaxis” in Drama
Education?
What kind of culture does drama education reflect and what kind of culture does it
create? And how is this rich activity being researched: are we aiming to find a suitable
method that would lead to the desired outcome, or are we genuinely interested in
researching the phenomenon using a critical approach? Since the end of the 20th century,
drama research has emphasised the importance of the experience and reflecting on the
experience: experiences alone are not significant, but instead how we relate to and deal
with them.
Drama education has emphasised the importance of the dramatic experience: what is it
like to be another person in a fictional reality? Today, the genres of drama education
believe that in addition to creating drama worlds (making, experiencing and performing),
it is a question of learning from the part of culture that has its roots in play, drama and
theatre. The following comments made by teacher students exemplify how they see the
value of drama education in the school.
•
I think children need to be able to come out of themselves and put themselves in
somebody else’s shoes or look at things from somebody else’s perspective. It
helps them think about how people might perceive something.
•
I think drama with children is a lot of things thrown in a pot together, I think it is
dealing with emotions, dealing with issues, dealing with growing up, dealing with
peers, dealing with dealing with things.
•
I think that awareness of themselves and others is important.
•
To be able to experiment, give permission, to give permission and freedom ... to
experiment and to enjoy... to enjoy other people perform or watching other people
speaking.
These are good goals, which are in accordance with the goals of basic education. Drama
brings fictional worlds, roles and stories, through which phenomena can be explored.
The research work of Toivanen, Rusanen and Laakso highlights courage, joy, relaxation,
self-discipline, concentration, acting, empathy, working in a group and participants’ own
life experiences in processes. I would imagine that similar results can be achieved in
good physical education, too. Ball games, for example, are to a great degree play with
strict rules and in which players take on roles, albeit subconsciously.
Is it then the teacher’s role that makes drama so different? In the context of drama
education we talk about the teacher-artist, whose tasks vary according to genre from an
educational director-dramaturge to a guiding co-learner. The creative element of teaching
can also be seen as an artistic element. In drama education, in addition to having
knowledge and skills relating to the subject matter, the teacher is required to have
pedagogical skills. These skills include interactional and organisational skills, flexibility,
coping with change, creative solutions and understanding different pedagogical methods.
Though this may be true, I would still call the art teachers I have observed in my work in
art education-oriented training at Oulu University teacher-artists of their own field.
Hence, the abovementioned is not a sufficient explanation, either.
92
Perhaps the question should be examined from a new perspective. Narrative research
could as one approach open up issues that are not spoken about. Another approach could
be artistic research. Science and art have common historical roots. The Greek word
'tekhne' and the Latin word 'ars' encompass several cultural fields that only later have
become independent sciences and art forms. Arts and science have the same fundamental
goal: both seek and present knowledge about their research object, which can then be
understood and applied by users of the information. When the product of studying drama
is art (theatre), making drama could hopefully also reveal areas of quiet knowledge,
which could then be analysed by means of science. This should take place throughout
the process, not just at the end of the drama project, which often ends with an end
discussion reflecting what has been done and experienced. The following comments
analyse the process of the group:
•
•
•
I feel sad that it is over.
It is sad that people looked at it just as a performance.
I feel that nobody should really sort of put it into a box and forget about it, I don't want
to do that, I don't want to forget what we have done.
These kinds of comments are often made when the process has been difficult or
otherwise challenging. They also reflect on learning, aesthetics, values of drama, and
what has been learned from the issue or theme that has been dealt with. However, the
comments are often very personal, which is something that could be further examined in
research. Perhaps the value and importance of drama and theatre processes in the school
is personal. Something in the process has moved the pupil, something the pupil considers
valuable and does not want to lose. Is that the magic of theatre? Metaxis? (See Allern
2001, Østern, A-L. & Heikkinen, H. 2001.) Can it be examined artistically and
meaningfully, or is it taken for granted? Or is it a question of a memory, pride in
something that has been done? An experience of success.
93
References
Allern, T-H. (2001). Myth and Metaxy, and the Myth of ‘Metaxis’ (paperpresentati¬on).
Playing Betwixt and Between. The Fourth World Congress arranged by IDEA.
2.-8.7.2001. Bergen.
Braanaas, N. (1985/2008). Dramapedagogisk historie og teori. (5. utgave) Trondheim:
Tapir.
Heikkinen, H. (1998). Understanding the Aesthetic Particular to Process Drama - the
Horizon of Incompleteness. In: A-L. Østern, (ed.). Horizons in Arts Education. Åbo
Akademi. Publikationer från Pedagogiska fakulteten nr 26, 117-126.
Heikkinen, H. (2002). Draaman Maailmat Oppimisalueina - draamakasvatuksen vakava
leikillisyys. Jyväskylä Studies is Education, Psychology and Social Research: University
of Jyväskylä. (Diss.)
Heikkinen, H. (2004). Vakava leikillisyys, draamakasvatusta opettajille. Helsinki:KVS.
Laakso, E. (2005). Draamakokemusten äärellä. Prosessidraaman oppimispotentiaali
opettajaksi opiskelevien kokemusten valossa. Jyväskylä Studies in Education,
Psychology and Social Research. (Diss.)
Lehman, N. (1997). Dekonstruktion og Dramaturgi. Århus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag.
O’Neill, C. (1995). Drama Worlds - a framework for process drama. Portmouth:
Heinemann.
O'Toole, J, Burton, B, Plunkett, A, (2004). Cooling conflict: a new approach to
managing bullying and conflict in schools. Pearson Education: Frenchs Forest.
O’Toole, J. (2006). Doing Drama Research. Stepping into enquiry in drama, theatre and
education. Drama Australia.
Rasmussen, B. (1990). “Å være eller late som om...“ Forståelse av dramatisk spill i det
tyvende århundre, et dramapedagogisk utredningsarbeid. Trondheim: Institutt for
Drama-Film-Teater UNIT. (Diss.)
Rasmussen, B. (1998). Teater og Drama som Kunstfag - en bakgrunn for den estetiske
praksis i undervisningen. In M. Haughsted, I. Hamre & M. Andersen. (Eds.) Anslag,
teater or dramafagets didaktik og metode. København: Danmarks laererhøjskole, 51-77.
Rusanen, S. (2002). Koin traagisia tragedioita. Yläasteen oppilaiden kokemuksia
ilmaisutaidon opiskelusta. Teatterikorkeakoulu. Acta Scenica 11. (Diss.)
Routarinne, S. (2008). Oppimistilanteen sosiaalista arkkitehtuuria. Kasvatus 5:2008,
423-438.
Toivanen, T. (2002). “Mä en ois kyllä ikinä uskonu ittestäni sellasta”: peruskoulun
viides- ja kuudesluokkalaisten kokemuksia teatterityöstä. Teatterikorkeakoulu. Acta
Scenica 9. (Diss.)
Østern, A-L. (2001). Tyhjät tilta ja esteettinen responssi draama- ja
kirjallisuusopetuksessa. In: A-L, Østern. (Ed.) Laatu ja merkitys draamaopetuksessa.
Draamakasvatuksen teorian perusteita. Jyväskylän yliopisto, opettajankoulutuslaitos.
Opetuksen perusteita ja käytänteitä 37, 237-243.
Østern, A-L. (2002). Writing-in-role and active aesthetic response in drama - Edvard
Munch’s paintings and diary as pretext (paperpresentation). “Creative Wawes” the
conference of National Drama. 2-6.4.2002. Edinburgh.
Østern, A-L.& Heikkinen, H. (2001). The Aesthetic doubling. In: B. Rasmussen, T.
Kjølner, V. Rasmusson & H. Heikkinen (Eds.) Nordic Voices in Drama, Theatre and
Education, 110-123. Bergen: IDEA publications.
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10. Dramaturgy in teaching and learning
Tor-Helge Allern
Abstract
In this article I will present some experiences from experiments with three dramaturgical
models in secondary school, where I have co-operated with teachers in three schools in
Northern Norway. The three dramaturgical models that were used were the classical, the
dialogical (epic) and the juxtaposing (simultaneous) model. The purpose with the
experiments was to examine dramaturgy as a concept for composing, realizing and
analyzing teaching and learning processes, i.e. all forms of teaching and learning, and
not necessarily using drama.
Introduction
The subproject, which I focus in this article, is a part of the project ”Drama and
Creativity within and across School Subjects”, which is financed through the Program
for Practice-based Research & Development in Pre-School through Secondary Schools
and Teacher Education. 2
The research question for the subproject was:
How can dramaturgy of teaching and learning be used to describe, analyze and develop
communication and learning processes in education?
During the project the research question was more focused on learning situations: How
can teachers use dramaturgy to compose and analyze different learning processes?
A second question was added: How can teachers use dramaturgical models to stimulate
a wider range of pupils, and especially boys that disconnect themselves from learning
situations?
In the last part of the project a third research question was added:
How can teachers use dramaturgy to create learning processes that also stimulate the
more clever pupils in a class?
Firstly I present the conceptual framework for this project introducing the concepts
dramaturgy, dramaturgical models. I describe how they are connected to different
perspectives of learning and knowing. Then I elaborate some experiences from the
research project, I comment on the research questions, discuss strength and limitations
with the three models, and conclude that there is a need for variety in teaching and
learning.
Description of the subproject and its phases
The first phase in our subproject was a pilot project where the three dramaturgical
models were applied on a specific theme – the Norwegian parson poet Petter Dass
2
The Research program is financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. I have
run the subproject with my colleague Anne Meek, Nesna University College. The project manager
of the main project is Aud B. Sæbø, University of Stavanger.
95
(1647-1707), his life, times and poetry. The three dramaturgical models were adapted to
specific topics in Dass’ life, times and poetry. The three schools were to use different
models on the same biographical situation, a psalm or a poem. The pilot thus examined
the effect of the different dramaturgies on a similar topic. One of the schools should use
classical dramaturgy on Dass’ occasional poetry, epic dramaturgy on his poem ‘The
Trumpet of Nordland’ and juxtaposing (simultaneous) dramaturgy on his religious
poetry. The other schools were to use other dramaturgical models on the same topics,
and the learning effects were to be analyzed in connection to the dramaturgical models.
The research methods in use were observation, log, questionnaire and interviews. In this
phase three schools, 12 teachers and 98 pupils participated. 3 Although just two of the
teachers were fairly trained in drama, almost all of them used drama as the central
method in their work with Dass. But their lack of drama competence weakened their
ability to use the models, and some of them just used the classical and epic dramaturgical
model.
Figure 1. Petter Dass. Painting from 1684 in Melhus Church. (The painting is traditionally thought
to show Dass).
This first phase was followed by new experiments on themes chosen by the participating
teachers, in subjects like math, Norwegian, social studies, and science. The teachers
were not trained in drama, although some of them have used drama methods in their
teaching. In this second phase drama was not used, and dramaturgy was thus used to
plan, carry out and analyse more or less traditional teaching methods within these
subjects. In this second phase 11 teachers and 166 pupils participated. I choose in this
article to analyse this phase with data from only one municipality. Out of the 11 teacher’s
in this phase nine were new participants. The research methods in use when gathering
data were observation, tests and interviews.
3
When the project started 5 schools and 20 teachers, which represented more than 350 pupils,
participated. One school had to withdraw because our projected clashed with other projects this
school had to give priority. The school took part in the second and third phase of our project. The
teachers at the second school, with pupils in 10. form, had to withdraw because of illness. They
tried to start the project later, but had to give up because they didn’t feel they had the competence
to carry it through. This school was a big secondary school in the biggest city in the region. These
withdrawals weakened the representativity of the research material, and especially its possibility to
analyze effects of the three dramaturgical models. The project thus only offers some experiences to
indicate possible effects.
96
In the third and final phase with experiments dramaturgy was not used as specific
models, but aspects of the dramaturgical models were used in two experiments.
Dramaturgy is rarely used according to “pure” models, but rather are different aspects of
models chosen in an eclectic way. This makes the learning process more complicated to
analyse, because the combination of different dramaturgies implies combination of
different epistemologies and learning strategies. Two schools, two teachers and 35 pupils
participated in the third phase. The research methods in use for gathering data were
observation, tests and interviews.
The experiments in the third phase were done in accordance with the teacher priorities
within a) the syllabus in the different subjects (social studies, science and mathematics),
and because of b) specific problems with the learning climate in the two classes
involved.
In one of the classes the teacher wanted a project about Galileo Galilei, and the teacher
wanted to use dramaturgy in order to create a specific learning process. This teacher
wanted a learning process that was rewarding both to both high achieving pupils (but
bored of school; mostly girls), the majority of ordinary pupils, but not so bored of school
(both boys and girls), and pupils that were low achieving, and bored of school (mostly
boys).
The second teacher wanted to create a similar learning situation in mathematics, i.e. a
creative process that is not just adapted to ordinary and low achieving pupils, but that
might also be rewarding to the high achieving. In the first class I as participating action
reseracher created a drama about Galilei and the inquisition, according to the aims of the
curriculum, using physical experiments, the convention teacher-in-role, and some more
or less conventional methods. I carried out the teaching and was leading the learning
process, while the teacher was observing it, and assisted with video-documentation and
offered some technical support (sound effects, etc.).
In the other class the teacher did all the planning, and she also carried out the teaching
and supervised the learning process. I observed the experiment and documented it on
video tape. The teacher wanted to examine if, or how, simultaneous dramaturgy might be
composed and carried out in order to create a rewarding learning process for both high
achieving and low achieving pupils. In the following paragraph I will concentrate on the
Galilei experiment and a description and analysis of the third phase of the project.
Before the analysis I present my theoretical framework connected to the concept
dramaturgy.
Dramaturgy and learning
Dramaturgy is traditionally understood as the technique or poetics of dramatic art which
formulates principles for how a drama is composed or structured. In late modernity
dramaturgy is more often understood as an ‘art of telling and performing’, and may
therefore be used in the composition and presentation of news, politics, teaching,
demonstrations, religious ceremonies, military operations, architecture, etc. 4 All teaching
and learning has an element of composition, presentation and communication. Therefore,
it is meaningful to examine how the concept dramaturgy can be applied in school, and
how it can contribute to improve the repertoire of teachers with a focus on teaching and
learning processes. I understand dramaturgy in teaching and learning processes as a
4
See Olav Njaastad’s use of the term in relation to journalism (Njaastad 2004: 172), and the article
‘Dramaturgy and Architecture’ in Dramaturgy. A User’s Guide, London: Central School of Speech
and Drama
97
concept describing how teaching and learning processes are composed, presented and
realized.
Dramaturgical models
In the Nordic countries the idea of dramaturgical models was presented by Janek
Szatkowski (1989) in an anthology discussing dramaturgical analyses. In my dissertation
(Allern 2003) I examined the relationship between dramaturgy and epistemology in
different historical dramaturgical models, from myth and Aristotle to performance and
the Norwegian contemporary dramatist and author Jon Fosse, and to drama-in-education.
I concluded that dramaturgical models seldom exist in “pure” forms, but that aspects of
the models are mixed eclectically, as in process drama. I added that the models direct our
attention to different questions. The different directions were considered a quality, and
this quality was of interest in our research project.
Linear models (as classical dramaturgy) lead us to ask ‘what’ and ‘why’; they search for
a linear explanation of things, incidents and properties. They search for ‘facts’, which
might be found, if the correct methods are used, outside the investigator – a student or a
researcher.
Dialectical models (as epic dramaturgy) lead us not only to ask why things are as they
are, but how things could have been otherwise. This is done by pointing at
contradictions, and the power in relationships and societies. The dialectical qualities of
the dramaturgy create a spiralling motion between fiction and reality, thus ensuring that
the audience – or the pupils - does not perceive fiction as an illusion. It is a perspective
on knowing as something growing from conversations between teacher and pupils.
Circular models (as in juxtaposing dramaturgy) lead us to ask how something is, and
examine relations from different perspectives. There is a greater attention to patterns that
connects, and to connections and violations between incidents, properties and states of
being. I connect juxtaposing dramaturgy to a systemic perspective on learning, where
learning is defined by a circulation of causes, effects and feed backs.
In an early phase in our project, while we were observing possible dramaturgical models
in teaching and learning processes, we found mainly two models; traditional ‘chalk and
talk’ and ‘dialogue oriented’ learning processes. We connected the traditional model to
classical dramaturgy, with its focus on textbook and imparting of knowledge. The
‘dialogue oriented’ teaching were first named ‘epic dramaturgy’, but renamed ‘dialogue
oriented’ because this concepts seems to fit more to the pedagogical context, to the
combination of telling and dialogue, and the use of repetition and contrasts. There were a
few examples of a third dramaturgy, which involved more sensible and physical learning
situations, and that didn’t seem to emphasize the teacher’s imparting of knowledge.
Our observations also stated that dramaturgy in teaching and learning, as in theatre,
shouldn’t be limited to the structure alone, and what kind of working methods that is
used. The way teachers and pupils communicate, and the way teachers present and lead
the teaching and learning processes, are important aspects. This performative aspect of
dramaturgy may become visible, when problems or unplanned situations arise, and in
how teachers improvise and handle such challenges.
The third model, which was first named ‘simultaneous dramaturgy’, according to
Szatkowski’s presentation of dramaturgical models (ibid.), was later renamed
‘juxtaposing dramaturgy’, because this concept better fits the equal value given to
different perspectives, means, expressions, and art forms.
98
The learning processes we observed often lacked physical and sensible methods and
challenges, but we wanted to add this dimension to our experiments. One reason for this
was that we wanted to strengthen the aesthetic dimension of the learning processes, due
to the purpose of the main project. Another reason was that, according to our
observations, many boys seemed to be less stimulated and motivated for school work
with teachers imparting knowledge, their own work with textbooks, and the verbal
dialogues in the class, than when action and corporeality was involved.
In co-operation with the teachers this aspect of the learning situations was to become one
major focus in our experiments, because they all wanted to examine how boys could be
better stimulated and motivated in school. We, therefore, constructed experiments which
emphasized sensible and physical learning methods, which didn’t give priority to
textbooks, but equalized verbal forms of communication with sensible, physical and
non-verbal forms of communication: ‘juxtaposing dramaturgy’.
There might have been other alternatives, both the use of other dramaturgical models
(Allern 2003) in our experiments, and examination of dramaturgy independent of
models. There are especially important arguments for this last alternative, and in the last
phase of our project this was in focus. But the original idea with our project was that by
focusing on ideal dramaturgical models, we might learn much about, how dramaturgy
may contribute to the creation of different learning situations. We didn’t want to use
dramaturgy to solve a specific situation, but to make experiments with distinct
differences, and thus we found that ideal models were suitable.
The idea that all presentation, included teaching, has a dramaturgy, does not imply that
the dramaturgy is clear, good, entertaining, or ethically responsible. Dramaturgy also has
ideological and ethical aspects. It expresses an attitude to the participants, the audience
and their community. Classical dramaturgy may be used to support the existing order, or
to criticize it. In both cases the dramaturgy provides arguments for a hypothesis of how
society is structured, and provides a chain of reasons explaining why society is as it is.
Dramaturgy in classroom research in Norway
The notion of dramaturgy is rare in Norwegian school research. One exception is the
theorist Erling Lars Dale who adopted the concept some 20 years ago. Dale linked
dramaturgy both to different roles in school, and as a concept for experience, energy, to
achieve an intentional effect, and related it to what keep a learning process working.
(Dale, 1989, 74) Dramaturgy thus, according to Dale, is about aspects of teaching –
irrespective of subjects. Both teacher and pupils try to achieve something definite. They
try to control their expressions, and to create a certain style, and this might be done
consciously as well as unconsciously. (Dale, 1993, 211) Thus Dale points at some
general aspects of dramaturgy in relation to education.
My focus is rather different, however, and brings into focus how dramaturgy can be
applied in order to understand and create a foundation for different teaching and learning
processes. The condition for this linking is the idea, that dramaturgy is also a perspective
on knowing, and that different dramaturgies therefore might be connected to different
knowing processes. 5 I apply the concept of dramaturgical models, and understand them
as ideal categories. Dramaturgical models rarely exist in their pure forms, but are
combined and mixed. Both learning processes and human thought apply features from
different forms of knowing. Even if we accept the Copernican view of the universe, and
5 I developed this perspective on the relation between dramaturgy and epistemology in my
dissertation (Allern 2003).
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that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun, most of us use expressions like
’the sun raises and sets’, i.e. expressions that is in keeping with the geocentric view on
universe of the Middle Ages.
Traditional forms of theatre (’classical dramaturgy’) mediate a given message to an
audience, which is based on a linear communication with a message from a sender to a
receiver. This corresponds to traditional forms of teaching, which emphasize textbooks
and the teacher’s mediation of ’facts’. In this tradition knowledge is given and shall be
transferred to, perceived and learned by the pupils. Bertolt Brecht marked and developed
an alternative tradition, the epic tradition, where knowledge in the same way as texts in
theatre and ways of telling stories might be changed and are temporary. This way of
telling stories and these forms of knowledge correspond to dialogical teaching and
learning processes. It marks contradictions and contrasts, and the pupils own experiences
and their perspectives are attached greater importance than in the classical form. The
epic, or dialogical way of telling, does not just refer to reality, but points at the
possibility of changing it.
Late-modern forms of theatre and media use interactive communications, which give the
audience a possibility for dialogue and participation, as well. But there is no
predetermined meaning that is to be uncovered for or by the audience, as might be a part
of the dialogue oriented dramaturgy. There is no obvious beginning or end, as in
classical dramaturgy. New media illustrate this way of telling, with its dissolving of a
consistent and close relationship between time, place and players. Television combines
easily several pictures, texts and different hypertexts, which opens for audience
participation, and dissolves the gap between the private and the public spheres. This
corresponds to learning processes that juxtapose media and working methods, like in
station work and in multigrade rural schools. But most of all this is about learning
processes in which visuality and sensuality have got greater importance, and which
combine different perspectives on knowing.
Epistemological changes in late-modernity
The British literacy researcher Gunther Kress (2009) points out that if the visual
representation has got greater importance in our societies, it is of importance if the
education system still gives priority to traditional texts. As an example Kress refers to
works done by pupils after a visit to the British Museum. One pupil writes about the visit
as a chain of incidents; ‘first we did this and then we did that’. But the drawing by the
same pupil expresses much greater complexity about what the pupil experienced. This
experience has almost disappeared in the written account of the visit. According to Kress
we can see the same tendency in textbooks. While visual presentations traditionally has
been nothing les than illustrations of – and subordinated – the text, now we must go to
the visual presentations to find the explanations.
Youth of today relate to a great extent to a popular culture, which include Internet, which
involves interactive forms of communication. Stories refer to other stories, and create
new ones. There is no ‘ready’ knowledge. This situation creates a more visualized form
of knowing, where different experiences, stories and perspectives are weaved into each
other. There is little indication that this way of thinking about knowing has a significant
impact in school. New school research concludes that traditional ways of teaching still
dominate Norwegian school.
According to Kirsti Klette (2003) three forms of learning dominate on all levels in
primary education: listen to the teacher, question and answer, and individual work.
According to Gunn Imsen (2003) teaching in classrooms are marked by traditional
teaching, individual work, group work and individual supervision. She finds that old
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ways of teaching still dominate, but they are limbered up by elements from progressive
pedagogy. My own observations from schools in Helgeland, Norway, are in accordance
with these findings. Teaching and learning are marked by mediation ruled by the teacher,
mixed with questions from the teacher to the pupils, and the pupils own work
(individually or in small groups) with different tasks. The classical dramaturgy
dominates, but it is combined – more or less- with dialogue-oriented ways of teaching
and learning.
Experiments with three dramaturgical models in school
The research team produced a set of explorative research questions: What happens if one
experiments with different dramaturgical models? May this create a foundation for
different learning processes? How might dramaturgical models strengthen learning
processes and motivate pupils who get detached from learning processes? How might
dramaturgy help teachers to create and develop learning processes that also motivate and
give challenges for high achieving pupils?
Dramaturgical models – a triangular didactics
Based on the observation that much teaching is traditional and with little variety, the
three dramaturgical models offer a way to create necessary variation. They open for a
triangular didactic where one may combine mediation governed by textbook and teacher,
both involvement and challenge of the experiences and perspectives of the pupils, and
more bodily, sensory and experience based forms of teaching and learning. It combines
the learning of a craft (techne), the creative use of craft, spontaneity and fantasy (poiesis)
with practical wisdom (phronesis)6 .
Even if traditional teaching may motivate the pupils if it’s performed by enthusiastic
teacher’s who posses great professional skills, for many pupils such learning processes
are restricted. Even pupils get bored of sitting too long at their desks. But in some cases
even traditional ways of teaching might be regarded as regenerating, for pupils who
seldom experience ‘traditional’ teaching.
In one of our experiments the three models were used on the same topic. The topic was
‘the body’, the level was grade 3. Primary school (the pupils aged 9 years). The
experiment was carried out twice, in two different schools (but with pupils at the same
grade). We changed between:
• Classical dramaturgy on the topic ‘the construction of the body / the skeleton’,
• Dialogue-oriented (epic) dramaturgy on the topic ’birth and aging
• Juxtaposing dramaturgy on the topic ‘digestion’.
The pupils did a test before and after the experiment to examine how the different
models worked, and this information was supplied by observations during the
experiment. In one of the classes the pupils were not at all used to the teacher mediating
a subject as a lecture, and the lesson with classical dramaturgy thus seemed to be
renewing and motivating. The teacher expected the opposite effect, because her pupils
were mostly use to dialogue based teaching. In this experiment the dialogue-based
teaching (about birth and aging) was less effective.
Our experiment indicates two possible reasons for this. Firstly, dialogue oriented
dramaturgy easily draws the teacher from her own preparations. The model is heavily
dependent on a highly professional teacher, if the pupils are to have the possibility of
obtaining new knowledge, i.e. to know something more than they already know. This is
6
The concepts in brackets refer to Aristotle’s use of the concepts.
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so whether the dialogue happens in the class as a whole, in small groups or in project
work. In addition to this, the teacher, in our experiment, did not sum up the learning
process, and the lesson was therefore marked by pieces of a puzzle that were not put
together. A third aspect is that dialogue oriented teaching and learning should not restrict
itself to talking and reading, but should use ‘all the sister arts of the drama’ (Brecht). And
it should create a learning process that challenges the attitudes and ideas both in
textbooks and in the minds of the pupils.
In our experiments the juxtaposing of elements in a sensory and experience based model
was especially successful. This might be due to the fact that it was carried through by the
two researchers, because getting to new teachers might be motivating in itself. But
reactions of the pupils and their teacher’s observation of the learning process also
indicate a very favorable learning process. We made a ‘Digestion Plant’, with different
stations, the two researchers as supervisors, and the pupils as workers. The stations
involved were; a) the mouth, b) the throat, c) the stomach, d) the small intestine, f) the
large intestine, and g) the rectum.
Figure 2. The Digestion Plant: foreman and workers.
At the first station, the body was provided food through the mouth: a piece of bread and
milk were dropped and kneaded into a plastic bag. Into the piece of bread, lego blocks of
three different colors were placed, symbolizing the three different nutritients:
carbohydrates, proteins and fat. Consequently there was linearity in our arrangement
with a beginning and end. But the juxtaposing of the groups designed circularity, and the
end was thus also continuity with a new beginning. The participants were also pupils, i.e.
they were both participants who acted and pupils who learned simultaneously. They
created a story about ‘the digestion plant’, and had the possibility to drag some of their
earlier stories and experience into this new story. And they new experience was not first
of all a written or verbal story; it was marked with all senses. For a few pupils the
incident of kneading the softened food with their hands was a strong experience. At the
next station, the throat, food was transferred to another and bigger bag – the stomach –
through a funnel. At the third station, the stomach, food was provided liquid (apple juice
was added), and at the fourth station, the small intestine, the nutritients were extracted
and led to the blood circulation system – a red plastic bucket. Then fluid was squeezed
through the large intestine, and finally the pupils disposed of the leftovers – i.e. in the
plastic bag – to model excrements, and discarded this into the toilet. At this stage, one of
the pupils began vomiting, but the others treated it with ‘frightful delight’.
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Figure 3. ‘The Digestion Plant’: the stomach.
In the conversation and the summing up after the experiment the pupils were very
engaged, especially boys who were otherwise passive or non-participating in their
ordinary lessons. We also experienced that such learning processes do not suit all pupils.
One girl said she felt ‘fairly stupid’ when she participated in our ’Digestion Plant’. We,
the researchers, connected her reaction to what we call ’role denial’, i.e. the experience
that some participants in drama get too nervous and unsafe, when they have to play a
role and enter a fictitious series of events.
Thus our experiments in the second phase suggest that to reach the whole class, there
have to be variations in learning processes. This also indicates, that dramaturgy must not
just be understood in connection to separate lessons, but in relation to the day, the week
and even the whole school year. Our project can not conclude with high degree of
certainty, because its material is limited, but our experience points in such a direction.
A similar experiment was executed in Mathematics on grade 5. In this experiment each
of the classes from the three schools that participated, carried out the process with use of
one specific dramaturgical model on the same topic in geometry.
Figure 4. ‘The Digestion Plant’.
The teachers considered it difficult to stick to one pure dramaturgical model. Teaching
and learning processes are more characterized by changing between aspects of models
during a lesson, than by using pure models. In addition it must be noticed that each
model, and the shift between models, might be carried out engaged and in a clever way,
103
or in an uinterested and boring way. The testscores regarding learning outcomes showed
some interesting differences, however. Even if the pupils that were involved in the
teaching using the juxtaposed dramaturgy had the poorest result, they had the most
significant progress. In this experiment we also noticed significantly more engagement
among the boys, than that was observed in connection to the other dramaturgies.
Beginning – middle and end
As researchers we have observed the necessity of a clear division of composition, as
Aristotle put it, into beginning, middle and end in order to secure a concluding sequence
of the lesson, the experiment, or the project. The concluding sequence might be carried
out in different ways within the three dramaturgical models. But if there is an end
without a summing up, the learning process will be too divided and fragmented. This, we
have found, is of special importance within the dialogue based and the juxtaposed
dramaturgical models, because the teacher may avoid the function as a leader, which she
should have also when these models are used.
In table 1 I have shown the characteristics and consequences of the three different
dramaturgical models studied and applied.
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Table 1. Characteristics of three dramaturgical models applied in the classroom research project.
Classical dramaturgy
Dialogue-based
Juxtaposing dramaturgy
dramaturgy
Marked by teacher, mediation Discussion and participatory Combination of different
and textbooks
methods
learning processes and
sensory experiences
Beginning – initiation – exposition
Teacher presents theme. Use Teacher asks questions and
of pictures, material objects takes the experiences and
etc. illustrate the teachers
proposals of the pupils as
introduction, and teacher take the starting point.
little notice of the pupils
comments or ideas.
Sensory and/or textual
stimulation without
preliminary explanation: use
of pictures, paintings, music,
dance, tableaus, narration,
etc.
Middle – the knot and its solution – desis and climax
Text based and mediation
informed teaching, where
the pupils listen and
acquire knowledge by
answering the teacher’s
questions, questions and
tasks in their textbooks,
etc.
Communication is linear.
Teaching and learning
Teaching and learning process
process are characterized by are characterized by
conversations, dialogue, new participation, experience and
challenges and suggestions. varying working methods,
The experiences of the pupils which include sensory and
are important for the learning bodily experiences. There are
process. The teacher
parallel actions and stories,
stimulates the dialogue with like in station work and
counter-arguments and new multigrade rural schools.
perspectives. The learning There is a return to the same
process occurs with
topic from several
retrospects and might be
perspectives.
dived in episodes.
Communication is
The communication is
simultaneous, i.e. happens on
dialectic, focused on
several places and with
dialogue and marked with
different medias.
contrasts
End – summing up – lysis
Teacher summarizes, either
verbal or textual (writing on
the black board, smart board,
power point, etc.
The summing up is done
through dialogue between
teacher and pupils, and their
proposals and meaning will
be emphasized.
The summing up takes care
of different perspectives and
differences between the
pupils. The expressions will
vary.
Focus on the topic, textbook,
curriculum, and the
The summing up emphasizes Several perspectives on the
preliminary intention of the contrasts and the possibility same issue are possible.
lesson.
for change.
The end is a new beginning.
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The existential dimension of learning
In the first phase of the project, where we used different dramaturgical models in
teaching and learning processes about the parson poet Petter Dass, we had to face
resistance and skepticism from the pupils. The pupils of the three schools knew little
about Dass in advance, and they were not especially interested in knowing anything
more about him. To overcome this opposition, our project applied a dramaturgical
approach that Dass himself used in his poetry: he mediated the Bible and Christianity
with a language and metaphors people knew from their own lives.
In this part of the project we therefore tried to create interest for the life, times and
poetry of Dass by creating situations in the role plays and in other parts of their work
that the pupils might have some experiences of or, at least, that they might be aware of.
These were common human situations like ’the loss of a father’, ’to be deserted by one’s
mother’, ’to be dependent of other people’.
The role play with classical dramaturgy, in which the theme was ’mother deserts young
Petter Dass after his father’s death’, had especially strong effect. Theatrical devices such
as lightening and music contributed to create a very powerful identification with the
main character. This situation had a powerful effect on all levels, and the pupils seemed
to be shocked by this incident. Several pupils spoke about Dass’ mother as a witch, and
as an argument they mentioned that she killed the three men she had married!
This situation illustrates that existential learning also might happen within a classical
dramaturgy, and that there is something more about experiences within the art form than
can be stated in learning hierarchies and traditional theory. Gregory Bateson argues that
art rather being concerned by learning within a hierarchy is commonly concerned with
bridging the gap between the levels of learning and mental processes. (Bateson, 1987,
308; 479 f)
One of the tasks in this part of the project was writing the diary of the young Dass, after
being deserted by his mother and staying at the house of an aunt south of Helgeland. One
pupil wrote: 7
To mother
How are you getting on?
I feel fine here by aunt and uncle
Can you visit me?
I feel so lonely without you!
I cry every day. I can not describe it
with words.
I miss you. Come to me soon.
Petter Dass
There is a certain distress in the pupil’s writing, between the starting lines (I feel fine),
the sudden pain in the middle (I cry every day) and the end (I miss you. Come to me
soon). The diary both expresses the polite attitude of Dass at his relatives’ house, but also
his distress of not living with his mother. And this idea of being deserted by mother is
frightening for most kids, even for the 14 year old pupil that wrote this.
7
Til mor / Hvordan har du det? / Jeg har det bra her hos tante og onkel. / Kan du komme på
besøk? / Det er så ensomt her uten deg! / Jeg gråter hver dag. Jeg kan ikke beskrive det med ord. /
Jeg savner deg. / Kom snart. / Petter Dass
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Creating these kind of situations, that appeal to the pupils’ own experiences and
thoughts, have been substantial for the pupils increased interest for Dass’ life, times and
poetry, in spite of the lack of knowledge and commitment when the project started.
Many of the pupils have mentioned this. And the change of attitude was shown in many
of their plays, and in some of the pictures the pupils made. This part of Dass’ biography,
his loss of father and being deserted by mother, made Dass of interest as a human being,
and motivated pupils to examine this theme, to get more knowledge about his biography,
and a more independent relation to his poetry.
Figure 5. ’Mother leaving young Petter Dass’. (Drawing by pupil in the 8. form).
Many of the children said in interviews after the project, that dramatizing and role plays
were especially motivating forms of working. They argued that these forms are more
instructive than traditional teaching and its priority of textbooks. The working methods
in the project are not very much used in Norwegian school; neither in the three schools
in Helgeland that took part in our project, nor in classes that experience some variation
in working methods. The existential dimension created greater engagement for the
majority of pupils, both in the role plays and in their writings (logs and other texts).
Using dramaturgy to change learning processes
In the third phase drama and teacher-in-role was used as main methods. This phase also
used physics experiments (like Galilei did with pendulum and his discovery that motion
time of falling objects of the same mass and descent was independent of their mass), and
some traditional working methods (group work, textbook, compendium). In the end the
pupils gave a presentation and summing up of the subject through a power point
presentation by each of the groups.
At an early stage of this phase the teacher commented that even if the pupils seemed to
have a great time, and enjoyed the lessons, the project did not seem to be rewarding for
some of the high achieving pupils, which was one central aim for the use of dramaturgy
in this phase. By that time I had presented Galilei, his times, some parts of his biography
and central scientific findings through the pupils interview of Galilei (’Meeting a Role’),
and the pupils had done two physics experiments and begun their group work. I therefore
107
decided to strengthen the professional part of the subject by mediating some more
information in a role play where the pupils played a) his friends, b) his colleagues
(astronomers) and c) clericals in the Catholic Church. The pupils wore costumes that
were made or borrowed especially for this event, and worked for some time with
creating their roles. We created a role play where Galilei (teacher –in-role) presented his
findings in more detail. Teacher–in-role stressed some central findings, especially about
the moons of Saturn, which proved that the earth could not be the centre of our universe.
We also prepared a flash forward, where the pupils could experience a dream or a vision
of what might happen to Galilei:
the chief inquisitor, father Maculano (teacher-in-role) passing by with a torch,
accompanied with Stravinskys Le Sacre du Printemps. Then, as father Maculano was out
of sight, some sounds effects (steps, door opened, door locked, steps, whips, crying,
beating, steps, door opened, door locked, a man crying, steps, and when father Maculano
comes into sight again with his torch, his passing by was accompanied with Jerry
Goldsmith Ave Satani.8 These actions took place in a narrow cellar beneath the school,
which was a hundred meters long and three meter wide.
We continued with a role play where the pupils prepared the trial against Galilei (in the
roles mentioned above), a ceremony where Galilei had to swear an oath to the Catholic
Church. The lessons in this third phase were completed with the pupils writing a letter
from a person who supported Galilei, but who did not dare to express this in public.
We created a game where father Maculano should investigate, who wrote the letter, and
this person was chosen in the same way as in the game ’The murder in the darkness’.
This end made a more humoristic final part to the Galilei project, and even if this is not
an obvious way of completing such a story, it gave some relief after a few days of strong
investigations. These dramaturgical approaches were effective, and stimulated the
learning process also for the high achieving pupils, who until then didn’t think they
learned very much.
The use of teacher-in-role was important for the dynamic quality of this learning process,
and to create challenges for the pupils. The pupils mentioned that it was motivating to
change rooms (some of our actions happened in a cellar beneath the school), and that the
teacher (in this case the researcher) played different roles. Teacher-in-role changed
between the two different roles as father Maculano and Galilei, he changed the status of
the Galilei character, and stressing some of the learning goals in the improvisations.
According to some pupils the use of costumes were especially motivating, for others the
use of sound effects were inspiring (‘May I have a copy of the sound effects, teacher?),
and for some the story. In this way different learning styles were stimulated, and this
variation is one of the major potentials of applying drama in school.
This was stated by these pupils in an interview after the project. Statements like these
two were typical for the pupils afterwards:
When we sit and read books I forget it as soon as I leave the classroom.
We learn more of this way of doing things than by sitting and reading books.
We have never done anything like this in school earlier.
These viewpoints show the need for change and variation in education, and that learning
without such variation is less effective.
8The
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music is known from the opening of the movie The Omen (2006).
Conclusion
Dramaturgy is not only a question of composition, or the systematic structuring of
teaching and learning. It is also about how teaching and learning processes are executed.
It is not sufficient to create a thrilling project work or participating work methods, in the
same way that a well done manuscript does not necessarily produce an excellent
performance. It is, thus, not obvious that drama methods or other aesthetic forms of
learning, necessarily causes learning. The teacher’s competence, her relations to the
pupils, the pupils mutual relations, and the climate for learning within the class, are
central factors for effective learning processes.
Dramaturgy of teaching and learning can be used to compose and analyze different
learning processes
The use of dramaturgical models might strengthen the variety of teaching and learning
processes. They combine different perspectives on knowing and learning, and a greater
variety of learning styles: reading and writing, visual, auditory, kinesthetic and tactile
learning. The triangular use of dramaturgical models include mediation governed by
textbook and teacher (classical dramaturgy); involvement and challenge of the
experiences and perspectives of the pupils, and challenge of perspectives of textbooks
(dialogical dramaturgy), and more bodily, sensory and experience based forms of
teaching and learning, which juxtapose media and working methods, like in station work
and in multigrade rural schools (juxtaposing dramaturgy).
Dramaturgy is, however, seldom used as pure models, and thus dramaturgy most of all
offer a flexible tool for structuring, exercising and analyzing teaching and learning
processes; how you begin it, proceed and end it. The research project underline the need
of summing up the learning process, especially in creative and fragmentary learning
processes, so that pieces in the puzzle are put together. But the summing up is not only a
task for the teacher, and the dramaturgical models point at different ways of doing
summaries.
The dramaturgical models should not be carried out in a dogmatic way. Some learning
processes might be strengthened by using pure dramaturgical models, as in the
experiment with pupils in grade 3. Some learning processes might be strengthened only,
if the teacher and pupils manage to apply aspects of dramaturgical models in an eclectic
way, as in the Galilei-example. Here dramaturgy was used to achieve a certain aim, and
the dramaturgy was changed during the learning process in order to strengthen the
possibility to achieve this aim.
Teachers use dramaturgical models to stimulate a wider range of pupils, and especially
boys that disconnect themselves from learning situations
Contemporary research shows that traditional ways of teaching still dominate Norwegian
school. It is a public attention to the apostasy in higher education, and a widespread
concern for boys weakened motivation for school. The research project, although the
material is very limited, shows a clear tendency. Boys are more motivated, more active
and improve their learning when they have the possibility to participate in physical,
sensible and creative learning situations. The project also shows a tendency that many
children are bored in school. Although the feeling of boredom doesn’t exclude learning,
the learning effects will be reduced. The dialogical dramaturgy might give some specific
challenges, especially if it is reduced to chat about certain issues. The research project
indicate a tendency that girls more often participate in such dialogues on a academic
level, and that boys more often than girls get detached from learning processes that
emphasize pure verbal dialogues. This is a possible task for further research.
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Teachers use dramaturgy to create learning processes that also stimulate the more high
achieving pupils in a class
The dramaturgical models open in different ways for creativity, participation and mutual
production. The classical dramaturgy is on a small scale open to participatory learning
processes, with its linear form of communication. The dialogue-oriented dramaturgy are
to a greater degree open to participation, but this form may easily end up with
disconnected chat, without academic substance nor engaged pupils. The use of creative
and participatory working methods in education does not demand less professional
knowledge by the teacher. Rather they seem to demand more than a teacher may allow
herself than if her teaching is marked by mediation and focus on textbooks.
The work with Petter Dass became motivating and attractive because it was connected to
questions the pupils took an interest in. It will strengthen a learning process if the
children feel they are concerned of the subject, and that they may use something of
themselves, their own experiences and thoughts in their work. Both the work about
Petter Dass and Galilei achieved an existential dimension, and with a few exceptions this
seemed to have an important influence on the pupils participation and learning process.
Even a work which was assumed very boring, Petter Dass, became of interest because it
touched the pupils own experiences and interests.
I suggest that the pupils must be challenged to get new experiences. They do not
recognize school as a place for learning, if they just discuss matters they already know. It
is possible to achieve such an aim with a triangular didactics, which combines features
of different dramaturgical models. This might be gained if it is carried through with both
engagement and professional skills. But the professional skills of teachers should not be
restricted to academic skills, it should include their dramaturgical skills; i.e. their skills
to use structure, presentation and communication in a motivating way, that include the
experience and participation of pupils, and that combine different media and learning
styles.
110
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11. The Theatre’s Voice in Community based Arts
Wendy Lathrop Meyer
Abstract
This is a development paper that focuses on a project within The NORAD Programme in
Arts and Cultural Education under the named project “Community based Arts”regaining and modernizing Cultural heritage - Educating and professionalizing the
Community Artist. The project is carried out within the teacher training programme and
secondary school education at Marangu Teachers’ College in Marangu, Tanzania. The
main focus with this paper is to present a Norwegian financial aid project in Arts and
Cultural Education and see this as a possible new “seed” being planted within drama
and theatre education in Tanzania. This paper reflects on the question of preserving
traditional art by developing and exchanging artistic expressions and impressions in a
modern way can strengthen the students’ awareness of the importance of local and
traditional culture and heritage, and its place in a global world.
The Project’s Origin
In June 2006 Hedmark University College, Norway and Marangu Teachers’ College,
Tanzania were granted a project within “The Norad1 Programme in Arts and Cultural
Education”. This is a three-year scholarship programme, 2006 – 2008/9 and further
extended with two more years to 2010/11 that aims to economically support and educate
five Tanzanian students per year within the named project:
“Community based Arts”- regaining and modernizing Cultural heritage
Educating and professionalizing the Community Artist
Aim and Objectives
The overall goal of this project is to develop and improve the quality of Community
based Arts education and practice within higher teacher education in Tanzania.
•
•
The specific objectives of the project:
Upgrade the skills of college staff and Diploma students at Marangu Teachers
College to Bachelors degrees within Art and Cultural studies with emphasis on
Theatre/Drama through courses developed by Hedmark University College.
Make recommendation to relevant Tanzanian authorities with regard to
adjusting of the curriculum of Teachers education.
The programme was established in 2002 and has since its start been administered by
SIU. 2 It is a public Norwegian agency that promotes international cooperation in
education and research.
1
2
Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation
The Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Higher Education
113
Main Question
The main question I wish to focus is: “Can Tanzanian Teacher Students’ artistic practice
develop a consciousness about local tradition and art forms as their own unique voice in
a world of globalization and be able to define what is important for their own culture and
society within this matter?”
The main intension with this paper is to reflect on if preserving traditional art by
developing and exchanging artistic expressions and impressions in a modern way can
strengthen the students’ awareness of the importance of local and traditional culture and
heritage, and its place in a global world. What kind of an artistic practice one can expect
being carried out within the College and the local Community in general will be in this
paper related to theatre, music, song and dance combined in performing arts. If the
theatre within the specific college community and local community shall have a voice it
should be recognized art forms that concern both participants and audiences. This means
that indigenous performing art may be modernized and in this connection where
inspiration is brought in from the “globalized” world and adapted to local culture and
tradition for then to become “glocal” (Salhi, 1998). In other words the participants are
still sensitive to local culture and needs while adapting to the global environment.
Community Art
Community Art is about telling and sharing stories from past and present and being able
to convey, through artistic media, cultural history and issues that are of interest for the
given community involved in the artistic action.
Basically two main notions of community-based arts are relevant in this content: a) Arts
in a community context founded on mutual exchange of experience based on the existing
cultural approach of the given culture b) Community based arts for change in a
community (Cohen-Cruz, 2001). Through many experienced practices within the field of
Theatre for Development there is an ongoing discussion about practitioners not being
sensitive enough to the involved participants and the need for an appropriate
methodology and conceptualization of the form developed to ensure a successful
realization (Salhi, 1998).
The primary focus and educational aim within this context has been ethically important
to let the Tanzanian students be able to define what is important for their own culture and
society within this matter. Also to give them room to be able to reflect about problems
and matters that concern them through different aesthetic media.
Addressing Parliament on December 10, 1962 President Julius Nyerere said:
Of the crimes of Colonialism there is none worse than the attempt to make us believe
we had no indigenous culture of our own; or that what we did was worthless –
something of which we should be ashamed, instead of a source of pride ….. when we
were at school we were taught to sing the songs of the European … Many of us have
learnt to dance the “rumba” or the “chachacha” to rock-en-roll and to twist and even to
dance the “waltz” and the “foxtrot”. But how many of us can dance, and have even
heard of the Gombe Sugu, the Mangala, and the Konge …… So I have set up this New
Ministry to help us regain our pride in our CULTURE (Ministry of National Youth and
Culture, 1974:2 in Hatar, 2001:10).
Tanzania had no formal theatre in the Western sense, before Independence in 1961. In
1952 Ebrahim Hussein states that drama was seen throughout the colonial period as a
tool for mastering English pronunciation, diction and language. As a consequence,
drama in Tanzania would have a hard battle in the coming years to be accepted as a
relevant form for popular entertainment (Plastow, 1996). Benjamin Leshoai expresses in
his doctoral dissertation 1979, Drama as a means of Education in Africa the difference
114
that separates the concept of drama between the Western world and African drama:
Whereas in the Western world drama, poetry, story, music and dance
have been separated and compartmentalized into tight and individual
disciplines, the African drama integrates or combines them all into one
unit very difficult to compartmentalize (Leshoai in Plastow, 1996:18).
The theatre that emerged after independence, largely promoted by the University of Dar
es Salaam, was conscripted for the cause of socialism and ideological correctness. In
1999 Professor M.M. Muloltozi, UNESCO Consultant, Institute Of Kiswahili Research
University Of Dar Es Salaam conducted a survey and developed a research report on
The Common Oral Traditions of Southern Africa - A Survey Of Tanzanian Oral
Traditions. He divided these in to the following major categories:
- Sayings
- Songs/ Poetry
- Tales
- Oral Histories
- Theatrical Arts
- Special Institutional Lore
- Drum Lore
His research report shows that pre-colonial and colonial research in Tanzanian oral
traditions was very limited and selective; that it focused on those genres and forms that
were needed by the colonial state and the missionaries. Further he also expresses that
Tanzania's unwritten cultural policy until 1997 was premised on the twin poles of
nationalism and Ujamaa3. The policy did much to revive and promote traditional and
current Tanzanian culture, including the national language, Kiswahili, though it suffered
from a statist approach, which tended to alienate the real owners and creators of the
heritage. Moreover, the policy tended to ignore the other indigenous languages (other
than Kiswahili), and did not lay enough emphasis on preservation and promotion of the
oral traditions (Muloltozi, 1999). Kelly M. Askew states in her article “Jacks-of-all-arts
or Ustadhi?” The Poetics of Cultural Production in Tanzania: “The radical turn towards
socialism evoked a complimentary shift in the poetics of cultural production” (Askew in
Maddox, Giblin ed., 2005:307). In other ways this meant that only practices considered
progressive and maintaining socialist principles would be valued and emphasized within
Tanzanian Cultural activities (Askew in Maddox, Gibben, 2005).
The work of Tanzania’s well known playwright, Ebrahim Hussein, suffered from being
subjected to this narrowly defined assessment of theatre, so that his later, more
experimental work was hardly performed. In the late 70s and 80s a new movement
began to break through. The popularization of the arts began to imply that the arts were
to be something of form and context that the people could identify with, naming such as
song, dance, storytelling and using ethnic group specific language. Best known was the
movement called the Travelling Theatre, who was able to stage plays in rural districts
based on themes and forms that people in rural communities in some way could identify
with, but the performances had little influence on the communities (Hatar, 2001). How
3
Socialism or Family hood
115
were the rural communities able to preserve traditional art and further on continue to
develop specific arts within a community? The estimated population in Tanzania in 2009
is 38 640 10. (http://www.tanzania.go.tz/population/tzclock.html.) About 85 % of the
population lives in the remote areas. There are about 120 ethnic groups and languages.
Kiswahili is the national language. Marangu Teachers College is a government run
institution located in the Kilimanjaro region in the Northern part of the country. The
region consists of one million people, where Marangu Ward counts to ca. 400 000
people.
The state of Arts education in Tanzania today
What is the state of Arts education in Tanzania today? In 1997 the Ministry of Education
and Culture promoted the enactment of a National Cultural Policy by Parliament. The
policy, among other things, recognized that the arts are so vital in the development of the
nation that they deserve to be taught as “Independent Lessons” in the classroom.
Pre-primary, primary, secondary education and teacher’s college curricula shall include
art subjects, e.g. music, fine art, handicrafts and theatre arts. Furthermore these
subjects shall be examinable in continuous assessment and final examinations of these
levels of education (Ministry of Education and Culture 1997:4 in Hatar, 2001:19).
The irony of the policy statement above was only on promoting the arts within the
educational system. The Tanzania Institute of Education went ahead and developed a
theatre syllabus to be followed in Secondary Schools in 1996, and the first examinations
at Secondary School Level were expected to be held in the year 2001 (Hatar, 2001),
(Ministry of Education and Culture, 1996). Aside from The National College of Arts in
Bagamoyo and The Department of Fine Arts at The University of Dar es Salaam there is
only one, Butimba, of the thirty-four Teachers’ Training Colleges in the country that
offers Fine Art, Music and Drama. There have been ongoing theatre projects in
secondary schools and out of school projects like the TUSEME 4 club project for girls
through the 90s and up to today. The problem is that these projects are mostly found in
the urban areas of the country. The arts in general and theatre in particular had dropped
off the curriculum within secondary school. Over the passed years has higher education
within art subjects not been able to recruit a sufficient number of students. In 2007 only
two students within Theatre Art, two in Fine Art and one in Music have graduated from
Butimba Teachers’ College (NECTA5 2007). In 2008 the number of graduates did though
increase; six within Theatre Art, six in Fine Art and five in Music (NECTA 2008). Could
the problem be that when these subjects are absent from the secondary school curriculum
there will be poor ground for future students to choose subjects they are not at all
familiar with? At the same time can the result of absence of these subjects also cause an
absence of community specific cultural history and art practice within the community
schools? The fact is that a secondary school teacher might not have the specific cultural
competence and knowledge regarding the ethnic tribe belonging to the students he/she is
teaching. Because the teacher after finishing education is posted to a teaching job
anywhere in the country the Ministry may want. As Muloltozi expresses:
As regards culture, Tanzania, like most African societies, essentially has two parallel cultures
existing side by side. The first culture is the traditional, mainly rural, culture. The second
culture is the "modern" culture. The traditional culture continues to exist within its own
environment and by its own momentum. It embraces most of the people, especially those
living in the rural areas.(Muloltozi, 1999:3)
4 A Swahili
5
expression that is equivalent to “let us speak out' in English
The National Examinations Council of Tanzania
116
In the Marangu region, which basically consists of Chagga tribe inhabitants, specific
tribe art and cultural practice is slowly dying. I have in 2007 the experience visiting a
history class at Marangu Teachers’ College Secondary School where a thirteen year-old
student gave reasons for why Chagga art and cultural practice was no longer performed
or appreciated among youth in Marangu. The reasons given were:
•
•
•
Maybe the death of performers, nobody performs anymore.
Foreign culture, changes according to time.
Lack of interest in traditional dance and music.
In the rural districts of Tanzania, the absence of art education both seen in terms of
restoring cultural tradition and sustaining cultural heritage in a “glocalized” sense was
threatened and disappearing. The teacher in the same class I visited asked the students on
my behalf if anyone was engaged in music activities outside the school. The reply was, no, because they did not have modern western instruments. Referring to Julius Nyerere’s
reflections on the impact of colonial art making, that the Tanzanians believe that their art
is worthless and shameful – could then this reaction from a student be an aspect of
cultural shame? Yusef Q. Lawi in his article “Between the “Global” & “Local” Families”
sees this is a result of ”(..) the basis and site for the production of and articulation of
historical knowledge have since colonization shifted from the “local” to the “universal”
context”(Lawi in Maddox, Gibben ,2005: 299).
Focus of the project Community based Arts
Why is this a relevant project? As a result while looking upon the development of and
the lack of distribution of drama/theatre to many rural districts in Tanzania, there is little
or no tradition for students in Marangu to draw upon, apart from educational agitprop
dramas warning against AIDS, for example, and television soap operas. In this respect, a
project in “Community based Arts”- regaining and modernizing Cultural heritage.
Educating and professionalizing the Community Artist”, potentially can be very
beneficial, in opening up an avenue for dramatic expression where almost none existed,
and offering the tools for actors to go beyond certain stiff conventions.
More than ever before, the arts are shaping and influencing our daily lives through the
media and the creative industries. The arts are no longer confined to museums and
theatres, but are adding value to our national economies and improving the quality of
education. This has implications for arts education. However, unlike other subjects
taught at schools, the arts have rarely made their purpose clear: Why are they taught?
What is good arts education? And what are the benefits of teaching creative subjects or
using creative ways to teach?
In 2004 Professor Anne Bamford conducted the first international analysis of arts
education research for UNESCO6 , in partnership with IFACCA7 and the Australia
Council. In her book, The Wow Factor Global research compendium on the impact of the
arts in education, she compares data and case studies from more than sixty countries, the
book analyses the differences between 'education in the arts' and 'education through the
arts'. While appreciating that arts programmes are embedded in their unique social and
cultural contexts, Professor Bamford develops internationally comparable standards for
quality arts education. In addition, she identifies a number of concrete educational,
cultural, and social benefits of arts education (Bamford, 2006).What can two
Norwegians, a Drama teacher and a Music teacher, with no previous experience of
6
7
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies
117
working in Africa, no local language and minimal cultural competence, bring to
Tanzanian students? The main intention with this paper was to focus on “The Theatre’s
Voice in Community Arts”. Ironic enough, - what we first and foremost are doing is
facilitating local students to make their own theatre, because there is no theatre.
A major academic content of the programme consists of a compulsory 30 ECTS8
Applied Theatre and Music and compulsory add on of 15 ECTS Drama/Theatre and 30
ECTS Theatre Art for Children and Youth and 30 ECTS Community Arts research
project (Bachelor thesis). Music has contributed crossover value which combines theatre
with music/song /dance as an organic unity. The students should develop their capacity
to understand and discuss challenges connected to theatre and drama and music applied
to non-traditional spaces and marginalized communities. Development of cultural
knowledge and cultural theory, basic ethno musicological theories are given a central
focus. The students will further attend credit course classes at Hedmark University
College total 30 ECTS to complete their Bachelors degree. The Compulsory Applied
Theatre and Music course is held at Marangu Teachers’ College where the Scholarship
students train along together with five first year Diploma Teacher students. These five
students are all being educated for teaching in secondary school. One main objective
with the project is to make recommendation to relevant Tanzanian authorities with
regard to adjusting of the curriculum of Teachers education.
Goals Obtained and challenges along the way
In order to organize and develop a curriculum fit to inspire the students to awaken their
own cultural knowledge and specific cultural practice, it was important to focus on the
following areas:
•
•
•
To recognize drama/theatre, storytelling, song and music that were already
being practised in the classrooms and in the community.
To initiate the development and specialization within artistic practice.
To initiate gender equality and participation.
Muloltozi expressed in 1999 that:
Ritual enactments, and improvised drama are also forms of traditional theatre
arts. This then, is a rich area, of which Africa is justly proud. Its impact on
contemporary world music and dance (jazz, rhumba, samba, soul, calypso, rap,
etc.) is now widely acknowledged. /…/ Theatrical arts tend to cross borders and
continents easily, and in the process get adopted and adapted by others. So far
this process has been more or less unorganized and ad hoc; what is needed now
is to create a sub-regional framework through which the theatrical arts of the
various ethnic groups can be more systematically and scientifically
disseminated and adopted, with the necessary changes, throughout the subregion (Muloltozi,1999:15).
One of the main goals with this project is to let the students reflect on if preserving
traditional art by developing and exchanging artistic expressions and impressions in a
modern way can strengthen the students’ awareness of the importance of local and
traditional culture and heritage, and its place in a global world. The Scholarship students
and the teacher training students from Marangu Teachers College have implemented
drama and theatre educational methodology when training in secondary school practice
and teachers training with positive response from the staff and leadership at the specific
schools involved.
8
European Credit Transfer System
118
Through the students’ projects that involved both research on ones own ethnic cultural
practice and on the local Chagga culture, they found that the traditional, mainly rural,
cultures did have many similarities, but also great differences. Similarities were found in
general within the national inheritance in acceptance of mutual recognizable dances,
songs, technique of storytelling, rituals like weddings and funerals and acceptable
national fashion. But they also discovered that the content, the way of practice and the
specific tribal value of the cultural practice were different from tribe to tribe. One of the
student assignments in drama is to collect stories from the Chagga culture from both
people living in the community and from the secondary school students. In 2008,
twenty-five people in the community told their stories in Chagga to the students. These
were recorded and later written in Kiswahili. At the same time a storytelling festival was
arranged at the secondary school. The secondary school students were to tell their own
stories from their culture. Five classes were involved. Each class was to choose one of
the stories they wished to dramatize in the classroom. During this time the emphasis has
been focused on educating and developing the students in methods of drama/theatre and
music, performance skills, dramaturgy and cultural theory and knowledge and research
method. Four of the five chosen stories to be dramatized were social realistic stories
about girls being mislead by elder boys/men, “Sugadaddys”, where the outcome was
tragic for the girl in terms of becoming pregnant, dropping out of school or even dying
from child birth or AIDS. Opening up for the students from secondary school to be able
to revive stories from their own culture and be able to develop and perform stories
relevant for their life today can be regarded as restoring cultural tradition and sustaining
cultural heritage in a “glocalized” sense, where otherwise this cultural practice in the
Marangu community was threatened and disappearing.
Through constant combination between artistic practice, didactic practice, theoretical
knowledge and reflection the scholarship students have individually been challenged to
both perform research and find out what is to be specific within ones own tribe culture
and local tribe culture with regards to history, identity, artistic practice and relevant
social and cultural aspects. The constant lack of teaching materials is a challenge.
Marangu does not have any museum that represents the Chagga cultural traditions.
Through the storytelling project the assignment was also to develop a museum. All
secondary school students accompanied by many families contributed with items.
Pictures, cultural domestic items, stories, dances and songs were displayed in a special
room at Marangu Teachers’ College. This has become today an important resource for
learning for the whole college campus. The students through their research realized how
important it was for a teacher to be able to identify, learn and acknowledge the specific
tribe cultures among the students in the classroom. In this way cultural sharing and
development gave prospect to the students in the secondary school community enabling
them to give the dramatized content their own contemporary voice. In February 2008
drama as a teaching method was already implemented in the secondary school conducted
by both Community Arts graduates and the scholarship students. At the same time
Drama and Theatrical Arts was introduced as an extra curriculum activity where fifty
secondary school students participated. In December 2008 a new syllabus for Theatre
Arts as an optional subject in secondary school was launched from The Ministry of
Education and Vocational training. This syllabus was implemented at Marangu
Teachers’ College secondary school in January 2009 and at that time maybe the first in
the country. Between fifty and sixty students equally divided between boys and girls
participating. At the same time twelve 4-H drama clubs at different primary and
secondary schools in the Eastern Marangu Ward have been established, monitored and
run by the scholarship students. Among one of the 4-H groups is a mixed group of adult
men and women who are secondary school dropouts. Their participation and engagement
has had a positive impact on the younger members and they all express that they have
discovered new talent and gained self esteem (Marijani, 2009). The implementation
119
process has been research based while being planed and evaluated through four
scholarship student’s bachelor assignments. This research has been very important in
connection with making recommendation to relevant Tanzanian authorities with regard
to adjusting of the curriculum of Teachers education, that is one of the specific goals
with the ACE project. These assignments are to be passed on to the Ministry of
Education and Vocational Training.
Artistic and Educational Accomplishments and Challenges
As a group of five scholarship students and the five teacher training students have
developed and staged twelve dramatic productions for the community in general that all
have been performed at secondary schools, on the college campuses, at the hospital and
at the different villages markets. In addition the students have designed, directed and
performed three performances for children in Kindergarten. In developing these
performances the students were to define the target group they wanted to approach, find
specific themes they meant the target group could identify with, include song and dance
and develop a total concept of form that they could engage the audience with. As a
professional teacher within the drama medium, with little knowledge about the specific
culture I see it important to be humble towards the community’s cultural practice,
interests and also sense of humour and let the students define and express what is
initially relevant in this case. The themes that the performance projects have been based
on have included topics that have interest in peoples everyday life, such as love,
betrayal, money, health, HIV/Aids, teenage pregnancy, street children, children from
disadvantaged backgrounds, young offenders, ethnic minorities, drug users, school
dropouts, corruption and gender specific problems.
Jane Plastow writes in her book African Theatre and Politics about gender specific
problems embedded in traditional forms of performance as reconciling man to his
environment and society tended to impose conformist messages and often reinforced
reactionary beliefs. This could often be seen while traditional performance arts often
differentiated between male and female roles, with women cast as inferior partners
where women could portray either as sexual objects or homemakers where males often
were related to warrior prowess. Also the content of the dramatized could show wicked
and untrustworthy women who ill-treat their men, none concerning male betrayal of
womankind. (Plastow, 1996) I have also recognized this gender-based complexity within
the content of the student’s social dramatic performances. Experienced examples are
where the wicked stepmother chases the children away from home. The unfaithful girl
who betrays her family, and ends up dying of AIDS or where women cannot take action
and help others if they are not rich. The students have though portrayed men who betray
women where the man is the reason for passing on AIDS, but again the solution is to
forgive the male for his bad behaviour. A major problem has also been a number of
barriers for the female actress playing unfavourable women in the society. Significant
among these are negative social attitudes from the audience towards women working in
theatre, such as that they are unmoral and unsuitable for marriage. One problem is that
the audience may confuse the character being represented on stage with the actual
person. Community based arts for change in a community is also to seek new solutions
to old problems. A wish to change the circumstances is about making new choices.
A challenge here was to encourage the female members among the student acting group
to define the problems they see exist in their culture and experiment through drama
pedagogical processes to seek possible solutions. In this case, facilitating techniques as
Teacher-in-role (Heathcote) and Image Theatre and Forum Theatre (Boal) have been of
great use. By acting within the element of “play” the students are able within the
fictional content to pretend what the world could be like if one took a choice and acted
on it. In this way both women and men were able together to seek workable solutions to
120
dramaturgical problems. The students were preparing the performance “The Dilemma” –
which dramatises an issue common to many societies – the choice between love and
money when deciding who to marry. In this case, the young woman allows herself to be
persuaded by a powerful older and richer man that he can offer her more than her fiancé,
who comes from a poor family. She jilts him at the altar only to be let down by the older
man later. The story would have ended there, but exploring alternative solutions also in
favour of the feminine part, the students went on to consider the feelings of the older rich
man’s wife and the fate of the man himself and so extended the drama to include the
moral consequences.
This is a form of participatory theatre that can make a particularly important contribution
to the right to communicate as it gives voice to those who otherwise have difficulty
making their views heard. It can help communities to articulate common positions
around issues that affect them. It can also help women and other disadvantaged groups to
raise their concerns within the community.
Leaving to the students to independently arrange the whole performance and how to
draw attention to the target group, they improvised a comedy, Vichekesho, one that is
closely aligned to slapstick or Comedia del Arte as a form where also men are allowed to
dress up as women. Used once of creating entertainment for the colonised people in
whom they had began to sense a restlessness (Mlama, 1991 in Hatar 2001). With satirical
characters in wildly exaggerated costumes, a grotesque mishmash of bits of misapplied
western dress: tattered long johns (all-in-one underwear) worn over trousers, outsize
hats, a cap with an extended brim like an elephant’s trunk, oversize spectacles. These
characters enact a story in which a poor man, in cast-off military boots and trousers held
up with string, repeatedly outwits a Big Man, with padded belly and black hat, to whom
he owes money. With the help of a friend, he poses first as a sofa, then as a radio, then as
a spirit covered in a mosquito net who instructs the Big Man to forgive his debtor. The
Big Man flees, to great hilarity. Followed up by a dance sequence the audience was in a
receptive mood for the main event, and the play begins.
Conclusion
It is Thursday April 24. 2008 and I am at the local market in the village, Himo at
the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania where students from Marangu
Teachers’ college have just performed “The Disaster”, a play about a sister and
brother who had been chased away from home by their father and stepmother.
This kind of situation sadly occurs quite often in this country. The play focused
on children trying to survive by doing honest work instead of committing
criminal action, and finally in the end a kind neighbour offered the children to
come and live with her. The watching crowd are eagerly discussing the event
with the actors where one man says: “ Can you all come back and play for us
every week, because this is a good way to educate the people”. A woman stated:
“We all have a responsibility to take care of orphaned children, and should take
more action” (Diary entry, researcher).
I conclude, a great contribution the ACE project is making is precisely the one, one
wants to get away from – official institutional support. But our presence, the financial
input, has created the platform for this experiment to happen. The students have
welcomed the expertise, but it’s evident that artistic creativity, knowledge of how to
please a local audience and the issues that will rouse their interest, are already in place.
One of the best things about the project is that both sides freely admit we are learning
from each other, which is surely an educational ideal. I can see that a “seed” has been
planted to potentially give the theatre a voice in Marangu.
121
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Tanzania Institute of Education. (2008). Theatre Art Syllabus for Secondary Schools I-IV.
Ministry of Education and Vocational Training. Dar es Salam, Tanzania.
Women’s Voices And African Theatre: Case Studies From Kenya, Mali, The Democratic
Republic Of Congo And Zimbabwe Article 19, The Global Campaign For Free
Expression, February 2003,http://www.article19.org/pdfs/publications/gender-women-svoices.pdf (Accessed July 2009).
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12. Discursive constraints in Nordic educational drama and
theatre
Anna-Lena Østern
Abstract
In this article I apply some principles from discourse analysis, taking as point of
departure two statements or comments on educational policy produced in 2009
regarding drama/theatre as a subject in basic school education (Finland) and in teacher
education (Norway). I am analysing the vocabulary in use in these two texts. I am also
analysing the focus of the arguments and the points in the two texts. I read the texts as
showing the surface of a battle field connected to the value foundation of education, the
definition of knowledge, and the place of arts subjects in school. I also analyse the
direction towards which the statement is steered; in both cases the parliament and the
Ministry of Education. I articulate the power positions to start from, and try to identify
the gate keepers. I try to draw the borders of a discursive field with discourses
constituted and discourses being negotiated. These discourses are embedded in social
practices. I am inspired by Michel Foucault’s genealogy, a discursive approach to a
history of the present with a specific focus on practices which organize thinking systems.
I make an attempt to sketch a Nordic picture and mirror the Nordic perspectives in these
two texts. The picture is messy, it shows hierarchies in thinking and my conclusive
statement is that it is time for a “time out”, and necessary to draw a new map for drama
and theatre in education, based on the research at hand.
Introduction
The aim of this article is to identify challenges for the drama/theatre educational field in
the near future, in a Nordic perspective. I am in the article analysing two recent
documents about drama (in Norway) and theatre art (in Finland) in an educational
context in order to examine the values, assumptions and ideological strands
underpinning the texts. According to Michel Foucault (1980), phenomena and truths are
historically constituted as an interplay between current power and knowledge. These
systems constitute a certain understanding of ourselves, our history, the present and the
future (cf. Ulleberg, 2006, 41). As I am making a critical discourse analysis (cf.
Jørgensen & Phillips, 2000, 74), I will focus on how the language, the words in use
construct the content. Thus I will articulate some themes which are visible in the texts. I
want to thematize what dominating discourses can be identified regarding drama and
theatre education in the Nordic countries, with a special focus on Norway and Finland. I
choose Norway and Finland, because I know both cultures well from inside. I also
connect the discursive practices to a wider societal and cultural landscape in education
The Drama Boreale network has been an active agent in articulating the values
embedded in drama and theatre in educational contexts. The network activities have
since 1994 actively contributed to a professional identity formation among researchers,
drama and theatre teachers and drama and theatre teacher educators. The main network
activity has been the network conference every third year. Through the conferences it has
been possible to get to know about work and trends in the field (http://
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www.nordicdrama.net/page1.html). Two especially decisive events in a Nordic context
were on the one hand the NOTEFUN financed research design course that was carried
out in October 1997 in Trondheim. Most of the participants have fulfilled their doctoral
studies in drama or theatre. The other highly identity-shaping event was the hosting of
the IDEA world congress in Bergen 2001. The Community of Drama and Theatre in
Education Association is a highly international community. Also the Nordplus network
has contributed to mobility between the Nordic countries. At Åbo Akademi University in
Vaasa in Finland the Nordplus network Drama och Lärarutbildning contributed to an
extensive exchange of teachers and students for a period of 12 years. This network made
it possible to strengthen the quality of subject studies in drama education at basic,
intermediate and advanced level in Vaasa. This network also contributed to special
Nordic courses in dramaturgy, and in playback theatre and a network meeting in
Reykjavik (Østern, 2004).
The exchange of experts in examining doctoral theses, and in evaluating competences
for professorships, associate professorships and senior lecturers in drama and theatre has
to a large extent profited from the Nordic expertise. When a Master of Drama Education
degree was planned and established at Bergen University College from 1999, Anna-Lena
Østern (Finand) first was professor 2; so Bjørn Rasmussen (Norway) took over; and after
him Ida Krøgholt (Denmark) is professor 2 in Bergen until 2010.
Four of the Nordic countries have established a journal connected to an association. The
Nordic Journal Drama – Nordisk dramapedagogisk tidskrift1 has been the leading journal
for over 46 years. The Norwegian journal was first published in 1963 as Teater i skolen.
The Norwegian association was founded in 1962 as Landslaget Teater i skolen. It was
followed by FIDEA in Finland 2 and Drama & Teater i Undervisningen in Denmark 3 has
existed for almost 43 years now. A newcomer among the journals is the Swedish Drama
Forum. 4 These journals are published by the national drama and theatre organisations.
Nina Dahl (2005) has summed up how drama and theatre is described in national
framework curricula in the Nordic countries. In her overview Iceland is omitted (because
of the language), but Iceland is part of the Nordic network Drama Boreale. In the present
national framework curriculum for basic education in Iceland drama is placed as a
working mode throughout the curriculum.
The analysis in the following will comprise three steps: text, discourse analysis, wider
societal and cultural landscape in education. I will take these three steps of analysis
separately for each document.
Text analysis 1
Text from the Finnish context: statement proposing theatre art as a subject in basic
education (The text is from autumn 2009, planned to be published 27th November).
Text genre: a statement with an argument for theatre art as subject in basic education.
The statement can be connected to a planned reform in 2011, when the parliament will
discuss which subjects that can be included in basic education. No receiver mentioned in
the paper, no date for the statement to be published.
1
Published in Norway: www.dramaiskolen.no
Förening för skapande verksamhet, founded in 1972: www.fidea.fi
3 http://www.dk-drama.dk/
4 www.dramapedaogen.se
2
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Text producers: an ad hoc group of 14 persons in the field of drama and theatre, with a
focus in the steering board of FIDEA. The text producer is not the union, but individuals.
Core concept in use: theatre art (TA), participant and performative theatre. The
arguments for including theatre art as subject in basic education are divided into seven
arguments, the last also being a summary of the points.
Argument 1: TA helps the child to understand life.
Argument 2: TA is a right for the child.
Argument 3: TA contributes to knowledge about oneself and it contributes to holistic
learning.
Argument 4: TA promotes communication and social interaction.
Argument 5: TA promotes understanding among the participants as well as the audience.
Argument 6: TA creates a totality of learning through distancing.
Argument 7: TA belongs to basic education among other subjects. In the seventh
argument there is a summary of the possible benefits of TA with reference to research
done in Finland and internationally: TA promotes social skills, promotes personal and
artistic development, active citizenship, assists in control of the life situation, prevents
bullying, mental ill-being and exclusion.
Finally, a list of references is included with some of the doctoral theses produced in
Finland and some other central texts produced in English. The list of references might be
in progress, and I miss central texts from the Finnish context.
Discourse analysis connected to text 1
This text mirrors history with the creative drama discourse created in the 1970s, then a
definite discursive turn around 2000 away from creative drama discourse, and an attempt
to form a theatre art discourse for the school in 2011. The aim of the statement is to
make an impact on the decision-makers, when the subject profile in basic education will
be subject to re-negotation in the Finnish parliament. This text is pro-active, because the
actual event lies ahead in time.
The discursive practice which becomes visible in this text can be traced back to the
Finnish National Framework Curriculum from 1984, when an optional subject called
expressive skills (Fi. ‘ilmaisutaito’) was included in upper secondary education. This
subject had its core in drama, speech and movement, and music. As a consequence of the
place in the framework curriculum, the Ministry of Education in 1991 decided that
teachers of expressive skills (Fi. ‘ilmaisutaidon opettajia’) should be educated at the
University of Jyväskylä, Faculty of Education. The Theatre Academy in Helsinki was
not at that time interested in this teacher education. (More about the education of
teachers of expressive skills in Teerijoki, 2000). A plan for development was carried out
in Jyväskylä: A lecturer in drama pedagogy led this development. In 1994 a part time
associate professor (Sw. ‘docent’) in drama pedagogy was attached to the faculty; in
1996 a senior lecturer in drama pedagogy, and in 1999 a professorship in drama
pedagogy was founded at University of Jyväskylä. A Master´s program in drama
education was initiated and a drama education research program launched (it had in 2004
resulted in three doctoral theses and about 15 Master´s theses, as well as 3 licentiate
theses.). The Faculty of Education at the University of Jyväskylä wanted to promote
research in drama education, and applied for a Master´s degree program in drama
education. This Master was supposed to serve as a degree which could also be
recognised as a qualification for primary school teaching.
The subject expressive skills was omitted from the Finnish National Curriculum
Framework from 1994. A department for theatre and dance education was founded at the
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Theatre Academy in 1996, and a Master´s program in theatre education was launched. In
2000 the first doctoral thesis in theatre education was defended at the Theatre Academy.
In 2000 the Ministry of Education refused the application from the Faculty of Education
in Jyväskylä the right to a Master´s program in drama education, but suggested that
drama could be a specialism in the general Master of Education degree. Thus it is
possible to take a Master´s in education, specialising in drama education. This is in
practice organised in minor subject studies of 60 study points in drama education and a
Master´s thesis with a drama relevant theme.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Education decided that advanced level studies in theatre
education could be given only at the Theatre Academy in Helsinki and at Tampere
University. This can be considered a very decisive discursive battle with a distinct
discursive turn from 1991 to 2000. Firstly: through the power of the Ministry of
Education studies in expressive skills at the Faculty of Education in Jyväskylä were
introduced in 1991, and about 10 years later the possibilities were taken away from
Jyväskylä, and the task to educate theatre teachers was given to the Theatre Academy in
cooperation with the University of Helsinki, and to the University of Tampere (which
has actor training). This discursive turn is now visible in the statement from the ad hoc
group using the concept theatre arts. In Finland there is no official teacher category
called drama teacher and there is no subject called drama in any steering documents
from the National Board of Education. Drama is still mentioned in the National
Curriculum Framework for Basic Education, and at polytechnic level there is a four year
program in performing arts where the students graduate as directors of theatre expression
(Fi. ‘teatteri-ilmaisun ohjaaja’; Sw. ‘dramainstruktör’). There are a few upper secondary
schools which specialise in expressive skills (Kallio in Helsinki, Juhana Herttua in
Turku, Yhteiskoulun lukio in Tampere). In mid 1990’s a curriculum framework for an
optional subject, theatre arts, was introduced at upper secondary level.
The power structure made visible in the development can be connected to the Ministry of
Education as well as the National Board of Education. The dialogue with the University
of Jyväskylä can be characterized as power dominance from the Ministry of Education,
with a very negative result for the University of Jyväskylä regarding drama education.
The gate keeper function is not quite clear.
The subject theatre art is brought forward in the text as the name of a possible subject.
The teachers are educated at art universities. This challenge for the Theatre Academy
and the University of Tampere, which now have the power to write history, is to open up
the concept theatre art, in order to include those forms of applied drama which are
already developed in Finland as well as internationally. In the text I have identified
formulations which can be found regarding an open theatre concept.
The wider societal and cultural landscape in education in Finland connected to text 1
From the arguments used in the document, there might be a focus on legitimation from
an instrumental point of view: the subject theatre art is considered useful in many ways.
As it is a statement making an argument and claiming a place, the rhetorics in use must
have an appeal to policy makers. In Finland with a school system and teacher education
with high status internationally, there are some very disturbing aspects connected to
pupils´ well-being at school. In the final part of the text there is an intertextual reference
to the school massacres of Kauhajoki in September 2008 and Jokela in November 2007,
and to other aspects that might be connected to wider societal and cultural issues in
Finnish history. The resonance I interpret is, that the text producers conclude, that theatre
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art prevents bullying, mental ill-being and exclusion. This is a strong point to make
based on the research done so far in Finland and internationally. The evidence might be
rather weak regarding what actually can contribute to a changing picture. These aspects
are under-researched so far.
I consider this text to be not so powerful, because it is a voice from a soft group with
little formal power. The position of the group is hierarchically in asymmetry with the
power of the Ministry as a dialogue partner. But this tiny voice exists and the text clearly
articulates a discursive turn in educational drama and theatre in school in Finland. What
could be a possible new discursive turn is to articulate a will for cooperation between
theatre teacher education and the faculties of education which still include drama
education subject studies in their profiles.
Textanalysis 2
Text from the Norwegian context: comment on a planned teacher education reform
I will now turn to analysing the Norwegian text, which has been produced in about the
same time span as the Finnish text. From the Norwegian context I choose as material for
text analysis a comment on a text from the parliament about a new teacher education
programme in Norway (Stortingsmelding 11/2009). The text I analyse is dated 20 March
2009.
Text genre: a comment on a text from the Norwegian parliament about a new teacher
education reform. The receiver of the text is a committee at the Ministry of Education
(KUF-komiten). Text producers: The National Board for Drama and Theatre Subjects.
Signed by the Chair, Anne Bjørkvik, and by the coordinator for the Knowledge Centre
(Norw. ‘knutepunkt’) for Drama and Theatre, Tone Stangeland.
Core concepts in use: drama, art subject drama, drama and theatre.
The comment is focused on an argument regarding one point in the plan for the new
teacher education, which is to be launched 2012. In the plan for the new teacher
education (for grades 1-7 or for grades 5-10) the inclusion of a subject which is “not a
school subject” should only be up to a maximum level of 30 study points. For the well
developed teacher education milieus in Norway offering 60 points in drama and theatre
this is a disaster. The National Board for drama and Theatre Subjects argues for a
continuation of offering 60 points as a necessary option.
The argumentation starts with three points: (1) The role of all aesthetic subjects must be
discussed with regard to the new teacher education; (2) One arts subject could be
obligatory instead of obligatory mathematics for teacher education grades 1-7; (3) In
upper secondary education drama is a subject which demands from the teacher at least
60 sp in drama and theatre. The text in more detail describes the nature of the subject and
through the subject in four statements: (1) Drama is an arts subject; (2) Drama is a
subject with a knowledge base, and the subject conveys knowledge; (3) Drama is a
subject of creativity and innovation, and (4) Drama is a culture subject.
Discourse analysis connected to text 2
The target group for the Norwegian text is clearly the Ministry of Education and policy
makers in the parliament. The possibility to comment was given from the Ministry. Thus
the text has a certain dignity as a comment on an ongoing process. The text producers
write on behalf of the National Board. The issue is urgent, because the trend in the
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planned teacher education reform is to reduce the role of aesthetic subjects even more
than at present.
The concept used is drama, and drama and theatre. In the process of analysing this text I
have found three more texts elaborating this first comment. In one text from 28
September 2009 there are three points underlined: the need to include drama as learning
mode in all teacher education (5 study points[sp]); the possibility to include 30 sp drama
in teacher education; and the possibility to offer 60 sp drama as a basis for Master´s
studies in drama education. This is the case in the existing model. The writers (The
National Board for Drama and Theatre, The National Centre for Drama and Theatre and
The National Association for Drama in Schools) underline that since the introduction of
drama as subject in Bergen in 1971 Norway has been a pioneer in the Nordic context.
This upcoming reform is a serious threat to the development of the subject drama and
theatre in teacher education. The power is with the Ministry of Education, and gatekeepers also in the political field.
Through debates in the Nordic Drama Journal, published in Norway, discussion about
the name of the subject has been illuminated from different angles during the last five
years. The Norwegian debate has concluded so far with the use of drama as the main
concept, but with the combined concept drama/theatre in use as well.
The subject status for drama in basic education has not been achieved in Norway so far,
even if it has been much discussed. The subject drama is firmly established in upper
secondary schools around the country. Nils Braanaas (2008, 353) has written about the
necessity of gaining status as a subject: first it gains in importance, gets possibilities to
develop and produces literature about the subject. Braanaas (2008) has formulated a
drama-pedagogical history and theory, which has become a classical text in Norwegian
drama and theatre teacher education. This text is one of the corner stones in Norwegian
drama and theatre in education identity formation.
In Norway there is an extensive body of literature connected to the different courses in
drama and theatre subjects in upper secondary schools. This and many other aspects in
the picture regarding drama and theatre in the Norwegian educational context make the
now ongoing discursive battle really big and decisive for the future development of the
subject. The stakeholders from the field of drama and theatre have gathered themselves
together and appear to have a certain power, because they stand together. The power of
the ministry in Norway is still the decisive force, but different committees planning the
teacher education reform in detail are important agents in the new discourse.
A wider societal and cultural landscape in Norwegian education
The bigger picture in Norway describing educational policies is on the one hand a trend
of going back to basics with a focus on evidence based research regarding learning and
teaching, with a stronger focus on the knowledge base for different subjects than before
the National Framework Curriculum from 2006, Kunnskapsløftet, with its focus on the
formulation of competencies to be achieved. On the other hand, there is a rather
indistinct voice talking about democratic values, about intercultural understanding and
about ecological thinking focusing the learning processes, which are holistic, and make
appeal to experience, emotion and engagement in the learning processes. The aesthetic
dimension is considered a linking thread in the learning – and also how these aspects can
be part of the learning in school. Some negative comparisons of Norway in PISA and
other international studies have provoked Norwegian policymakers to action with the
very clear aim of raising the competence level of teacher education, of the teachers and
the pupils. Arts subjects are in this discussion often placed as a responsibility for the arts
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schools outside of compulsory education. An intertextual resonance can be identified in
the discussions - to a trend among pupils in vocational studies at upper secondary level
to interrupt their studies and leave school without a formal exam. The voices of the
pupils can have an impact on how arts subjects will be treated in the reform of teacher
education, because of the popularity of these subjects. Furthermore, almost 20% of today
´s pupils leave secondary school without sufficient reading skills. Many of these go
directly from secondary education to social support systems and never take their place in
the workforce in Norwegian society. One disturbing statistic presented recently is that
the workforce in Norway seems to be the most sick of all countries studied.
The UNESCO-report The WOW-factor (Bamford, 2006) has also been discussed widely
in Norway. Ann Bamford’s central point is that the arts subjects can promote learning,
but this seems to happen most if the teaching is given by teachers with competence in the
arts subject in question. Also the Norwegian drama and theatre milieu is vulnerable in
facing educational trends which do not support arts education as one key learning area in
school among other key learning areas. One possible alternative is to strengthen the
indistinct voices and to define evidence in a way that takes into account learning in arts
and through art as a field of knowledge.
Conclusion
The development of subject studies has in Norway predominantly taken place within
teacher education colleges, and in universities within arts faculties. The underlining of
the subject as an arts subject is in line with the Finnish definition of the subject, but the
Norwegian argumentation is more based on the substance of the subject than on the
impact of it. The two texts are distinctly different in arguing in the first text (from
Finland) for a subject status in basic education, and in the second text (from Norway)
arguing for the continuation of a system already in place with subject studies in drama in
teacher education. One remark regarding the Finnish text is that if theatre art should be
included in basic education from 2011, there is no developed competence in theatre art
teaching that could cover the whole of basic education. In Norway this competence has
been developed during a period of almost 40 years. One trend in Norway as well as in
Finland is the introduction of positions in arts education as well as professorships and
senior lecturers. This is a rather new phenomenon, and the result of this more open arts
educational focus is yet to be seen. The picture as a whole is rather messy; I would
suggest a time out to find the new focus of drama and theatre education in the Nordic
context, based at research already at hand. I would also suggest a Nordic research project
to study the different paths for drama and theatre education, and to possibly bring
together the evidence gained from the substantial body of Nordic drama and theatre in
education research already at hand. The point of this discourse analysis is to show that
there is a choice – and that this choice is about what kind of societal morals that should
be strengthened in individuals and in the community. The practice of drama and theatre
educators matters, it is precious – in form as well as in content.
131
References:
Bamford, A. (2006). The Wow-Factor. Global research compendium on the impact of
arts in education. Münster: Waxman.
Braanaas, N. (2008). Dramapedagogisk historie og teori. 5. Utgave. Trondheim: Tapir
akademisk forlag.
Dahl, N. (2005). Nordiska läroplaner i drama. In A-L. Østern, L. Risan, M.Strandberg &
S. A. Eriksson (Eds.), Drama, dramaturgi och kulturell läsfärdighet. SMLF:s årsskrift
2005, 81-104 Publikation Nr 10. Vasa: Pedagogiska fakulteten vid Åbo Akademi.
Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge: Selected interviews and writings, 1972-1977.
Edited by Colin Gordon. New York: Pantheon Books.
Jørgensen, M.W. & Phillips, L. (2000). Diskursanalys som teori och metod. Lund:
Studentlitteratur.
Teerijoki, P (2000). Draaman tiet. Jyväskylä: Jyväskylän yliopisto.
Ulleberg, H. P. (2006). Et vidløftig sted. En analyse og en diskusjon av skolegården som
et sted for pedagogisk virksomhet. NTNU. SVT. (Diss.).
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Appendix 1:
Statement from an ad hoc group of active members of FIDEA, and of researchers and
educators in the field of drama and theatre in Finland 2009 (version from10th Nov. 2009)
The working group comprised the following members:
Lecturer Henna Hakkarainen (Keski-Pohjanmaan ammattikorkeakoulu)
Lecturer Kirsi Karvonen (Keski-Pohjanmaan ammattikorkeakoulu)
Lecturer Siri Kolu (Metropolia Ammattikorkeakoulu)
Coordinator Mirja Neuvonen (Helsingin Kaupunginteatteri)
Vice-Rector Riitta-Mari Punkki-Heikkinen (Oulun suomalaisen yhteiskoulun lukio).
Assistant Director Kari Rentola (Helsingin Kaupunginteatteri),
Lecturer Riku Saastamoinen (Teatterikorkeakoulu)
Lecturer Maissi Salmi (Martinlaakson lukio)
Director Ville Sandqvist (Teatterikorkeakoulu/Opek)
Chairperson Anne Sandström (FIDEA)
Lecturer Birgitta Snickars (Novia, Svenska Yrkeshögskolan Vasa)
Lecturer (Drama Education) Tapio Toivanen (Helsingin yliopisto)
Lecturer Annemari Untamala (Kallion lukio)
Head of Unit Marjo-Riitta Ventola (Keski-Pohjanmaan ammattikorkeakoulu)
Julkilausuma/Proklamation/ Statement:
TEATERKONSTEN SOM ÄMNE IN I GRUNDUTBILDNINGEN!
TEATERKONST GER FORM OCH VERKTYG ATT STUDERA OCH FÖRSTÅ
LIVET
Teaterkonst som skolämne inkluderar den deltagande och den föreställande teaterns alla
verksamhetsformer. Praktiskt framskrider undervisningen genom gruppbaserade
arbetsformer och delområden i drama och teater till att göra och uppleva föreställande
teater.
BARNET HAR RÄTT ATT LÄRA SIG TEATERKONST
Genom att inkludera kompetent, systematisk och långsiktig undervisning i teaterkonst i
grundutbildningens timplan görs drama och teater tillgängligt för alla barn och unga.
Teater i skolarbetet har visserligen långa traditioner och det finns ett utbud av
grundundervisning i teater, men dessa ger inga garantier för riksomfattande jämlikhet.
FÖRBÄTTRAD SJÄLVKÄNNEDOM
Lärande inom teaterkonst ger olika slag av kunskap via känslor och aktivitet. Ett viktigt
mål för teaterkonsten är förstärkt självkännedom hos eleven. Barn och ungdomar
använder i teaterkonsten sin kropp, sina tankar och sina erfarenheter på ett
helhetsmässigt sätt. Teaterundervisning är kraftgivande (empowerment): ”Du är unik och
värdefull, samtidigt som du är en bland miljarder”.
KOMMUNIKATION OCH SOCIAL INTERAKTION I EN FÖRÄNDERLIG
MULTIKULTURELL VÄRLD
Teater är en kollektiv konstform, där fokus ligger på samarbete mellan individer, på
grupptillhörighet, intensiva upplevelser och tolerans för olösta situationer. Genom
teaterkonsten undersöker man aktivt vad det är att vara mänska, man lär sig ta hänsyn,
att samarbeta och sociala färdigheter. Teaterkonsten förebygger marginalisering och ger
färdigheter som behövs för att möta förändringar både i det egna livet och i samhället.
DELTAGANDE OCH FÖRESTÄLLNINGAR
133
Inom teaterkonsten lär vi oss att förstå och tolka olika former av mänsklig
kommunikation och media. Samtidigt tränas färdigheter inom kommunikation,
framträdande och interaktion som behövs i dagens och i framtidens samhälle.
Teaterkonst möjliggör deltagande både som aktör och som observatör.
TEATERKONST SKAPAR HELHETER
Inom teaterkonsten behandlas förhållandet mellan fiktion och verklighet och man tränas
att betrakta olika fenomen genom distansering. Via teaterkonsten kan barn och unga
uppleva nya saker och utveckla tankar som har betydelse för det egna livet. Genom att
agera i roll skapas förutsättningar för att undersöka och hitta olika synvinklar och
verksamhetsmodeller. Teaterkonst gör det möjligt att förena olika konstformer och olika
läroämnesstoff i en helhetsinriktad inlärningsprocess.
TEATERKONSTEN HÖR TILL GRUNDUTBILDNINGEN TILLSAMMANS
MED ANDRA LÄROÄMNEN
Undervisningen och forskningen inom teaterkonsten i Finland för en kontinuerlig dialog
med internationell drama- och teaterundervisning samt forskning, både via enskilda
aktörer och via teaterpedagogiska organisationer. Forskning på doktorandnivå inom
deltagande och föreställande teater och drama ger en stabil grund för undervisningen
inom teaterkonst. Forskningen har påvisat vilken speciell betydelse teaterkonsten har för
barns och ungas personliga och konstnärliga utveckling. Forskningsresultaten ger belägg
för den inverkan som undervisning i teaterkonst har, då det gäller att utveckla sociala
färdigheter, aktivt medborgarskap och gemenskap samt för att behärska livssituationer
hos barn och ungdomar i olika ålder och med olika bakgrund. Teaterkonst förebygger
mobbning, psykiskt illamående och utstötning.
134
Appendix 2: Comment from the national board for the drama and theatre subjects
(in Norway)
Nasjonalt fagråd i drama- og teaterfag
Til
Kirke-, Utdannings- og Forskningskomitéen
Bergen/Kristiansand 20.mars 2009
Sammendrag av vedlagte notat vedrørende dramafaget og St. meld. 11
•
Nasjonalt fagråd i drama- og teaterfag ber Kirke,- Utdannings- og Forskningskomitéen
diskutere hele det estetiske fagfeltet i den nye lærerutdanningen i lys av nyere forskning
som det også vises til i meldingen. Ikke minst må det dramapedagogiske feltet få et
nytt fokus.
•
Fagrådet mener at et kunstfag som obligatorisk alternativ til matematikk i LU 1 -7,
vil være i samsvar med nyere forsking om barns måte å lære på, strategiplanen Skapende
læring og intensjonene for det nye pedagogikkfaget. I lærerutdanningssammenheng
må også kunstfaget drama være et slikt alternativ.
•
Fagrådet minner om at lærerutdanningen også omfatter videregående opplæring.
Spesialisering i drama må ha samme fordypning som en hver annen fordypning, altså 60
sp. Dette er dessuten et nødvendig kvalifiseringsgrunnlag for studenter som vil fortsette
sin dramaspesialisering inn i mastergradsstudium i dramapedagogikk eller
teatervitenskap.
•
Fagrådet støtter UHR sin skepsis til at både norsk og matematikk skal være
obligatoriske fag i lærerutdanningen.
Drama er et kunstfag
Vi anbefaler å bruke begrepet kunstfag for faggruppen (dans, drama, kunst og håndverk,
musikk). Dette er også i tråd med internasjonal språkbruk – the arts. Den brukte
betegnelsen praktisk-estetisk gir et signal om at fagene ikke har et teorifundament. Teori
og praksis utgjør en selvfølgelig faglig helhet – i alle fag/faggrupper..
Drama er et kunnskapsfag og et formidlingsfag
Vi vil peke på dramafagets muligheter til å bidra til opplæringens generelle
kunnskapsmål, altså at kunnskapsutforsking og kunnskapsformidling inngår blant fagets
grunnleggende kvaliteter og forutsetninger. Faget er svært aktuelt som støttedisiplin til
målet om kvalitetsheving av lærerrollen.
Drama er et kreativitets- og innovasjonsfag
Drama kan som et skapende fag være viktig bidragsyter til innovasjon, kreativitet og
nytenking, og kan legges inn i det nye pedagogikkfaget som et faglig didaktisk emne (for
eksempel 10 sp). Drama er en katalysator for kreative prosesser. Det obligatoriske kurset
i den nåværende allmennlærerutdanningen Drama som metode, har fått svært gode
tilbakemeldinger både fra faglærere, øvingslærere og studenter og må opprettholdes i
minimum omfang på 30 undervisningstimer.
135
Drama er et kulturfag
Drama har sitt eget faglige innhold, samtidig som det henter sitt formidlingsinnhold fra
mange andre felt. Dramafaget forvalter den dramatiske kulturarven, den muntlige
fortellertradisjonen og utvikler kollektive/sosiale kvaliteter. Formidling, fortelling,
motivering er omtalt som viktige aspekter ved lærerrollen i St.meld. 11, og fremheves
som avgjørende om undervisningen virker godt for elevene eller ikke. Drama forvalter
også slike kvaliteter.
På vegne av Nasjonalt fagråd i drama- og teaterfag
Tone Stangeland
136
Anne Bjørkvik (leder)
Notat vedrørende St.meld. 11 (2008-2009)
St.meld. 11 (2008-2009) har fått tittelen Læreren. Rollen og utdanningen. Dramafaget er
spesielt knyttet til rolle og rolleperspektivering. Fagmiljøet ved høgskoler og universitet
kan derfor bidra med viktig kompetanseheving her. Rolle kan brukes både som funksjon
(personlig, sosial og administrativ), som formidlingsmåte (metode, klasserommets
dramaturgi) og som uttrykksform (læreren som forteller, undervisning gjennom rolle).
Læreren har hatt en viktig rolle som kulturarbeider, kulturformidler og samfunnsbygger
opp gjennom tidene. Dette notatet er et bidrag til hva dramafaget kan tilby den allsidige
lærerollen i den nye lærerutdanningen.
Drama er et kreativitets- og innovasjonsfag
Meldingen peker på at gode lærere er de som gjennom ”fleksibilitet og kreativitet”
skaper betydningsfulle forskjeller mht. ”å tilpasse og variere undervisningen” (s. 13 og
49). Vårt fags rolleregister, vårt grunnlag i kunnskaper om improvisasjon og vår
tradisjon med utforsking gjennom fiksjonsrammer og scenarier, bidrar til kompetanser
lærerutdanningen trenger. Samfunnet trenger mennesker med kunnskaper, som er
kreative og i stand til å omforme teori og abstrakt tenkning til forklaringsmodeller eller
former som kan settes inn i nye sammenhenger og dermed fremstå som ny kunnskap.
Drama kan være viktig bidragsyter her, og bør legges inn i det nye pedagogikkfaget som
et faglig didaktisk emne (for eksempel 10 sp).
Drama er et kulturfag
Meldingen slår fast at ”skolen skal overføre kunnskaper og ferdigheter, kultur og verdier
fra et slektsledd til et annet” (s. 9). Drama har både sitt eget faglige innhold samtidig
som det henter sitt formidlingsinnhold fra mange andre felt. Vi vil peke på den
dramatiske kulturarven som vårt fag forvalter, samt den muntlige fortellertradisjonen og
fagets evne til å utvikle kollektive/sosiale kvaliteter. Meldingen snakker om ”en bred
kulturforståelse er grunnleggende for et inkluderende sosialt fellesskap”, og rollen
’læreren som kulturformidler’ berøres flere steder i planen. Formidling, fortelling,
motivering er omtalt som viktige aspekter ved lærerrollen som er med på å avgjøre om
undervisningen virker godt for elevene eller ikke. Meldingen viser her til internasjonal
forskning.
Drama er et kunstfag
Meldingen er ikke konsekvent i sin begrepsbruk for kunstfagfeltet.
Både betegnelsen praktiske og estetiske fag, praktisk-estetiske fag, estetiske fag og
kunstfag blir brukt om hverandre.
Vi anbefaler å bruke begrepet ”kunstfag” for vår faggruppe (dans, drama, musikk, kunst
og håndverk) - dette for å hindre at kunstfagene oppfattes som ikke-teoretiske. Teori og
praksis utgjør en selvfølgelig faglig helhet – i alle fag/faggrupper. Betegnelsen kunstfag
er dekkende for denne faggruppen i skole og utdanning og er også i tråd med
internasjonal begrepsbruk: the arts.
Drama er et kunnskapsfag
En selvfølgelig konsekvens av argumentasjonen over, er at drama er kunnskapsfag. I
tillegg fungerer faget også godt til å formidle (ulike former for) kunnskap.
Stortingsmeldingen er ikke et dokument som legger opp til drøfting eller argumentasjon
om f.eks. ”nye” fag i lærerutdanningen. Vi vil likevel peke på dramafagets muligheter til
å bidra til opplæringens generelle kunnskapsmål, altså at kunnskapsutforsking og
kunnskapsformidling inngår blant fagets grunnleggende kvaliteter og forutsetninger.
Vi er reserverte til at både norsk og matematikk skal være obligatoriske fag i
lærerutdanningen.
137
Vi mener et kunstfag som obligatorisk alternativ til matematikk i LU 1 -7, vil være i
samsvar med nyere forsking om barns måte å lære på, strategiplanen Skapende læring og
intensjonene for det nye pedagogikkfaget. Det må imidlertid i denne sammenhengen
være like muligheter for kunstfagene, altså slik at også drama kan være et alternativt
valg og med et minsteomfang på 60 sp.
Meldingens konsekvenser for dramafaget
For begge lærerutdanningsløpene kommer følgende formulering: ”Fagkretsen kan
likevel ha et skolerelevant fag på inntil 30 studiepoeng som ikke er undervisningsfag” (s.
16, 17, 19). Dersom denne formuleringen blir stående slik, kan den isolert sett blokkere
for alle dramatilbud (og dansetilbud) på 60 sp. Men om formuleringen ses i forbindelse
med hovedutsagnene til hvert av de foreslåtte løpene, hvor ordet ”normalt” er et sentralt
tolkingsord, ligger det til rette for å kunne tolke inn, som et brudd på normalen, også 60
sp studieløp f.eks. for fag som drama og dans.
Vi peker på at lærerutdanningen også omfatter videregående opplæring, altså også årene
11-13. Meldingen minner om at det i videregående skoler kreves 60 sp for å undervise i
alle fag, s. 18. Her er drama et skolefag, og det er et fag som kvalifiserer til opptak for
høgskole- og universitetsstudier. Studietilbud av minst 60 sp i drama er også av denne
grunn nødvendig å tilby ved Høgskolene. Viktig er også å nevne at det eksisterer
mastergradstilbud i dramapedagogikk og drama/teaterfag. Disse krever 60 sp
opptaksgrunnlag i faget for allmennlærerstudenter og minst 80 sp i faget med
bachelorløp. Også av denne grunn må det være mulig å ta minst 60 sp i drama i
lærerutdanningen.
Noen konkluderende betraktninger
Plassering av drama i en ny lærerutdanning – som strekker seg mot en fremtidig 5-årig
varighet – må ses i perspektivet 1-13. I dette perspektivet er både tilbudet 60 sp,
påbygging 30 sp, Mastergrad og PPU viktige og fremtidsrettede tilbud. Meldingen
nevner at ”departementet vil sette ned en nasjonal følgegruppe med bred faglig
kompetanse” som et rådgivende organ mht. lærerutdanningsspørsmål (s. 29). Det
nasjonale dramamiljøet/fagrådet vil gjerne bidra med en representant i en slik nasjonal
følgegruppe.
Nasjonalt fagråd i drama- og teaterfag ber Kirke,- Utdannings- og Forskningskomiteen
diskutere hele det estetiske fagfeltet i den nye lærerutdanningen i lys av nyere forskning
som det også vises til i meldingen. Ikke minst må det dramapedagogiske feltet få et nytt
fokus:
•
•
•
•
•
Faget som bygger på erfaringsbasert kunnskap og som gjennom spillsituasjoner
utforsker de utfordringer man står overfor i det å være menneske i dag .
Faget der den dramatiske fiksjonen danner grunnlaget og mulighet for å
reflektere fra ulike vinkler – som i et laboratorium.
Fagområdet som gir læreren konkret og praktisk hjelp til å bruke sin kropp og
sin stemme.
Faget som gir verktøy til å uttrykke seg med overbevisning og faglig tyngde.
Faget som er en katalysator for kreative prosesser
Fra et kunstfaglig og dramafaglig ståsted har vi sterke ønsker om og muligheter til å
styrke den nye lærerutdanningen. Forutsetningen er at de ansvarlige for revisjonen av
lærerutdanningen er våkne for det uutnyttede potensialet som ligger her.
138
About the Authors
Stig A. Eriksson is associate professor in drama at Bergen University College, Norway.
He has served on IDEA’s Executive Committee, and was Project Co-ordinator for
IDEA’s 4th World Congress 2001 in Bergen. Eriksson has been involved in curriculum
development, and introducing drama in schools and higher education. Eriksson’s
research interests are the history of the development of drama education, political theatre
and process drama. In 2003 in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Eriksson was awarded the
international prize Grozdanin Kikot for contribution in the building of the IDEA, and
especially for the work in establishing the IDEA solidarity fund.
Hannah Kaihovirta-Rosvik is a visual artist and holds a Master of Arts Degree in Arts
Education, from the University of Arts and Design in Helsinki. Her doctoral thesis
investigates an aesthetic approach to education and the arts educative perspectives of
relational aesthetics and community art. She has special interest in arts crossover
strategies, intervening performances and arts as interpretative learning events. Her resent
research focuses on arts informed inquiry that addresses arts based learning practices as
interpretative zones. She conducts training in teachers` and artists’ further education in
contemporary arts and does dialogue teaching and research together with educators and
researchers.
139
Liora Bresler is a Professor at the College of Education at the University of Illinois at
Champaign. Most recently, she has edited the International Handbook of Research in
Arts Education (2007, Springer), Knowing bodies, moving minds: Towards embodied
teaching and learning (2004, Kluwer). Bresler serves as an editor for the book series:
Landscapes: Aesthetics, Arts and Education, for Springer. She is the co-founder (with
Tom Barone, 1999-) and co-editor (with Margaret Latta, 2006-) of the International
Journal for Arts and Education.
Erkki Laakso has an actor training from TheatreAcademy in Finland (1960) and a PeD
from 2004.. During a period for over two decades Erkki served as senior lecturer in
drama pedagogy at the University of Jyväskylä, where he, until his retirement, has
promoted university-based studies in drama pedagogy as well as drama education
research. He was project coordinator of the second Nordic drama boreale conference in
Jyväskylä 1997.
Kari Mjaaland Heggstad has been teaching drama at Bergen University College since
1987. She has written several reports and books about drama in education (e.g. 7 veier til
drama) and has published articles in various journals and anthologies. She was the
initiator and leader of the Nordic TIE conference Focus on TIE at Bergen University
College in 2000. Heggstad has participated in the research project Kunstfagdidaktikk
(2004-2007).
140
Ida Krøgholt is associate professor at Department of dramaturgy, Aarhus University.
2007-2010 associated as professor 2 at the MA in Drama at Høgskolen in Bergen. Her
research area is Applied theatre and drama and Globalization and World Art. Ph.D.
thesis, 2001, Performance og dramapædagogik – et krydsfelt,
Bjørn Rasmussen is a professor in drama/theatre at Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige
Universitet, Trondheim. He is a researcher in applied drama and theatre with a special
focus on drama education, for example drama and epistemology, drama and the
aesthetic. In collaboration with research students he works on cultural-aesthetic analyses
of forms of drama/theatre in different societal contexts Furthermore he has facilitated
projects in role-playing and school-tiredness, drama in medical training, drama and play,
drama and the disabled. Bjørn has for 20 years contributed to promote drama research
and research training as well as collaborated nationally and internationally to build
drama network, associations and journals.
Eva Österlind, drama pedagogue, Ph.D.and assistant professor in Educational Sciences,
has long experience of teaching drama in higher education, especially teacher education.
She initiated a Bachelor programme in Educational Drama at the University of Gävle.
She is interested in Forum Theatre as a tool for active citizenship, and the use of drama
methods in Education for Sustainable Development.
141
Hannu Heikkinen, Ed.D, Lecturer of Arts in Education is working at the University of
Oulu. He is the head of aTeacher Education program, which is focused on Arts in
Education. He has published books, articles, papers and has given workshops at national
and international conferences. He is a member of the International Advisory Board at the
Research in Drama Education Journal (UK).
Tor-Helge Allern is Associate professor in drama at the Nesna University College,
Norway. He has a Ph.D (Dr. Art) in drama from The Norwegian University of Science
and Technology (NTNU) (2003). Allern is currently involved in a research project in
primary school financed by the Norwegian Research Council, where he examines the
effects of different dramaturgies in teaching and learning.
Wendy Lathrop Meyer is Assistant Professor in Drama and Theatre at Hedmark
University College Department of Art and Information Science in Hamar, Norway. She
is an academic/ professional project leader for the Norad programme in Arts and Cultural
Education - “Community based Arts”- regaining and modernizing Cultural heritage
Educating and professionalizing the Community Artist.
Anna-Lena Østern is currently engaged in a research project called Arts literacy as
worldmaking in education. The Nordic researcher group intends to describe a third way
for education, where emerging meaning, relational aesthetics, multimodal literacy and
focus on culturally sustainable development is articulated. She is a visiting professor at
The Faculty of Education at Åbo Academi University and professor of arts education at
the university of Trondheim NTNU.
142
14. Figures & Tables
Article 1:
Figure 1. P. Brueghel d.e.; Landscape with the Fall of Ikaros, ca. 1558.
Figure 2. Detalj fra Ikaros flukt.
Figure 3. Heathcote som lærer-i-rolle.
Article 2:
Figure 1. En rhizomatisk figur för hur man kan vandra genom en konstbaserad
lärprocess.
Article 4:
Figure 1: The most important areas of significance in drama experiences.
Figure 2: Deepening of work in process drama.
Figure 3: Factors connected to the learning potential of educational drama.
Article 5:
Figure 1. Meaning becomes attached to the object.
Article 6:
Figure 1. Aesthetic doubling hits the nail on the head regarding drama in societal
systems.
Article 10:
Figure 1. Petter Dass. Painting from 1684 in Melhus Church.
Figure 2. The Digestion Plant: foreman and workers.
Figure 3. ‘The Digestion Plant’: the stomach.
Figure 4. ‘The Digestion Plant’.
Figure 5. ’Mother leaving young Petter Dass’.
Table 1. Characteristics of three dramaturgical models applied in the classroom research
project.
Faculty of education at Åbo Akademi University and the authors. All rights reserved.
143
144
The theme of the sixth Nordic drama boreale conference “Drama in three movements –
a Ulyssean encounter” uses journey as a metaphor for life span. The metaphor
is used in order to illuminate and describe experiential learning in educational
drama and theatre in a life-long perspective. As guiding principles for the
preparation of the conference we have used the concept eco-pedagogical thinking
and artistic learning processes as possible key elements in the education of
tomorrow. In this anthology with 12 selected conference proceedings the diversity
of research within drama and theatre education within a Nordic framework is
exposed.
To develop research and knowledge about educational drama and theatre can
be considered a Ulyssean encounter: necessary to undertake, a huge task, a task
that can only be accomplished if we make joint efforts in order to articulate and
explore the knowledge potential in the art form about the human condition. Art
and science share a fundamental challenge: in both, you must concentrate on
imagining something that does not yet exist, because it is the art expression or
the result of the scientific effort that makes the not hitherto seen visible.
Educators in the field of drama and theatre education participate in a dialogue
about values in arts education through research and development aiming at
producing knowledge. This report intends to be part of that dialogue.
Report
Report Nr 29/2010
ISSN 1458-7777
ISBN 978-952-12-2405-8
Faculty of Education, Åbo Akademi University
A blind review report
Address: PB 311, 65101 VASA, Finland
https://www.abo.fi/student/pfpublikationer
A-L. Østern, M. Björkgren & B. Snickars-von Wright Drama in three movements A Ulyssean encounter
Drama in three movements
A Ulyssean encounter
Drama in three movements
A Ulyssean encounter
Anna-Lena Østern, Mårten Björkgren
& Birgitta Snickars-von Wright (Eds.)
Report
Nr 29/2010